Where did Charles Nungesser fly?

[Olham 164]

The Aerodrome gives me N65; Spa65; V106, V116, but in OFF, I can't find

those squads after Esc.65/after end of 1916.

Where did he go from there?

[Creaghorn 10]

The Aerodrome gives me N65; Spa65; V106, V116, but in OFF, I can't find

those squads after Esc.65/after end of 1916.

Where did he go from there?

 

 

there are several aces stats screwed up somehow or missing. i corrected the kill list of MvR by myself or added some kill stats of pilots where it was missing. unfortunately some seem to be coded so my project of completeing the aces kills and stats etc. is not possible. voss has none and mannock has the one of albert ball and similar glitches. i hope it's going to be sorted in p4 but it's a lot dry work to do.

[Airshark 0]

I have read that after flying with ESC 65 Nungesser was allowed to fly wherever and with whatever ESC he wanted, which would account for him showing up in various organization records.

[Olham 164]

Hmm - but what squadrons do the Aerodrome numbers mean?

[Bullethead 12]

The Aerodrome gives me N65; Spa65; V106, V116, but in OFF, I can't find those squads after Esc.65/after end of 1916.

Where did he go from there?

 

French squadrons had a number like RAF squadrons, but also had a prefix for the manufacturer of the airplane they had at any given time. The prefix might change but the number stayed the same.

 

N65 and Spa65 were the same squadron, Escadrille No. 65. At one point in time, it was equipped with Nieuports, so it was called N65. Then it re-equipped with SPADs so became Spa65, but it was still the same squadron, and was still part of the same Groupe de Combat 13. The change apparently happened between June and July 1917 (according to French Aircraft of the First World War).

 

V106 and V116 were bomber squadrons equipped with Voisin pushers of various types. This must have been very early in his career. There being no Voisins in the game (and few French 2-seaters of any sort), it's no wonder you can't find these squadrons in OFF.

 

I don't have any details, but it appears to me that Nungesser eventually became something of a supernumerary and test pilot instead of a regular squadron pilot. This seems to be connected with the politics of the French aviation industry in the latter 1/2 of the war, when both Nieuport and Morane-Saulnier were trying to regain a slice of the fighter market then being monopolized by SPAD. Nungesser seems to have preferred their rotary planes to the the inline SPADs, and both companies built him special 1-off machines that he apparently at least tested, if didn't use in combat. But most of them ended up with his personal logo on the side.

 

In any case, Nungesser seems to have had a lot more freedom of choice than the typical French pilot as to what he flew. I get the impression that he did a lot of lone-wolf stuff. He also spent quite a lot of time in the hospital, you know, which no doubt accounts for long gaps in his service record.

[Olham 164]

Thank you for good information, Bullethead.

Now, when you say he was still in Esc.65 until summer 1917, I must have a look again.

 

Maybe Shredward went as far as taking Nungesser out of the chalk board, when he really was in hospital.

Wouldn't asthonish me much - he contributed such detailed data already. (Thanks, Shred!)

[Olham 164]

It is indeed so, and you got me on the track, Bullet - Nungesser is back with SPA65 in December 1917.

Shredward - the man who has the facts!

(What a brilliant team found together to create OFF !)

Edited January 20, 2010 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

If I remember the facts even remotely right, Nungesser was practically a walking war injury. He crashed so many times that he surely used most of his lives during the Great War. And his final fate is a mystery - he disappeared while trying to make the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean with his pilot friend Francois Coli. This happened in May 1927, a couple of weeks before Charles Lindbergh succeeded in the attempt.

Edited January 20, 2010 by Hasse Wind