Nieuport-IV by
Edward Nieuport

Nicknamed 'Nieuport with a spoon' for noseover-preventing ski, this variant had no clear military assignment and normally carried no weapons. Nieuport-IV appeared in Russia in 1912, served as a reconnaissater until 1916 and as trainer until 20's.

Normally single-seater, it coud be equipped with second seat back-to-back with pilot. Both seats were comfortable located... on top of the fuel tank. Aircraft had original spring-suspended landing gear. Controls were also unconventional. Wing wrapping was performed via pedals, stick was used to control tail surfaces. In 1911 this scheme was very popular and for some time was considered to became a standard (due to popularity of Nieuport aircraft). But it faded later with introduction of ailerons as a standard instead of the wing wrapping.

First Nieuport-IV arrived to Russia in 1912 with 50hp Gnome engines. Several modifications were introduced by Russian pilots and inventors. About 300 were built by domestic manufacturers.

References	Links
"History of aircraft construction in the USSR", Vol.1 p.150-152; TsGVIA f.2008 op.1 d.503 pp.7,85 TsGVIA f.2008 op.1 d.726 pp.91,109 TsGVIA f.2008 op.1 d.728 p.30 TsGVIA f.2008 op.1 d.113 p.86 'Tekhnika Vozdukhoplavania' 1912 Vol.1 p.673 'Tekhnika Vozdukhoplavania' 1916 Vol.6,7 p.120 'Aero- i avtonobilnaja zhizn' 1913 Vol.3 p.6	Early aircraft at The Swedish AF Museum Nieuport monoplanes