For Members who attend the AGM, the author is the good looking one on the platform taking notes, our efficient Minutes Secretary. However, his day job for the last six years has been producing this book. Ray admits that there is virtually no original research in the book, but he has gathered together everything known about Nieuports and their creators, and has given us a worthy addition to the Crowood Aviation Series. Like Blériot, Edouard de Niéport, as he was born, started by manufacturing electrical accessories for motor cars, and had no faith at all in the future of aviation. But the French authorities banned motor racing competitions in 1902 after the disastrous Paris-Madrid Rally, and manufacturers had to turn to the aviation industry as outlets for their products.

By 1914, Nieuport's aeroplanes were not highly thought of by the Head of Military Aviation. By 1918, twenty different types of aircraft had given the company immortality. 7200 Bébés were built, and subsequent aircraft saw service with the RFC and RNAS as well as the Aviation Militaire. Construction was contracted out to companies in France, Italy and Russia. The US Air Service got 300 Nieuport 28s, and so on.

Aircraft were built from 1910 until 1936, when the entire aviation industry in France was nationalized, but by that time the Nieuport products were no longer recognizable as descendants of the line that began before World War I. Ray Sanger tells the story and has chosen some wonderful photographs to go with it. He takes each front on which Nieuports fought and gives details of successes and failures. He describes each sub contractor and what happened to them. My lasting impression is that the Nieuports all looked good, and probably were.