05/15/2022. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The Nieuport 10 two-seat reconnaissance aircraft established the mold for the generation of single-seater scouts that followed. The first was the Nieuport 11, which was smaller than the Nieuport 10 but powered by the same 80 hp Le Rhône rotary engine. The initial Nieuport designation Nie XIB quickly won it the nickname "Bebe". The type was fitted with a Lewis machine gun above the upper wing firing over the propeller arc. The Lewis gun had a limited magazine capacity, and its position made it difficult to reload and to clear blockages. Like the Nieuport 10, the design suffered from weakness in the structure of the lower wing, which resulted in a number of accidents. However, the cause soon became known, and steps were taken to correct the problem.

The Nieuport 11 entered service at a critical time, when the Fokker E.III, with its synchronized fixed machine gun, had gained an ascendancy over Allied machines. Being light and agile, the design became immediately popular. The machine was operated by both the French AF and the RNAS, but not the RFC: thus 450 were built by Nieuport-Macchi, Varese, Italy and 93 by Elettro Ferroviarie Tallero, Milano, Italy. The Duks factory in Russia also built the design in quantity, and some were also allocated to the Belgian AF. After the internment of an RNAS machine and its pilot, the design was built in the Trompenburg factory in the Netherlands. Of the twenty ordered, but only twelve were built, equipped with 80 hp Thulin engines. They were delivered in 1918 and served until 1925.

The aircraft's opponents soon developed a healthy regard for the aircraft, and at the behest of their frontline pilots, the concept was widely copied by the German manufacturers, Euler and Siemens, Schuckert – even to copying the fragile lower wing design.

The Nieuport 11 was soon re-engined with the 110 hp Le Rhône 9J to become the Nieuport 16.

The aircraft pictured above was an unarmed and unnumbered prototype that first appeared in the summer of 1915."