Sopwith Aero Marquis

Nieuport 28 Limited Edition
98 timepieces available

The 160 horsepower Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type N engine was used in several World War I airplanes including America’s first fighter, the legendary Nieuport 28 biplane.

Originally priced at nearly four thousand dollars per unit, this nine-cylinder rotary was among the most expensive aircraft engines produced during the war. Nevertheless, it was prized for its simplicity of design and excellent power-to-weight ratio. Unlike the water-cooled engines of the SPAD XIII and SE 5a scouts, the Gnome rotaries could be rebuilt by aircraft mechanics at their front-line airfields after their 15-20 hour service cycle and often returned to service within one day.

Manufactured by the Gnome et Rhône company in Paris, the engine created a distinct exhaust note that is uniquely associated with World War I aircraft. It’s “total loss” lubrication system famously bled over two gallons of castor oil per hour, most of which sprayed onto the underside of the airplane. The thunderous sound and unique burning scent of a Gnome engine remains iconic more than a century later.

Unable to produce enough air frames and engines from its own resources, the United States Air Service was forced to purchase equipment from foreign manufacturers in order to get its pilots into action. As a result, American pilots flew French-built Nieuport 28 biplanes extensively on Western Front combat sorties in the spring and early summer of 1918.

The United States Air Service purchased a supply of Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type N rotaries in 1918 to power its Nieuports. Most of these engines were employed in front-line combat. More were stored in Parisian warehouses awaiting front line use. But the midsummer advent of the V8-powered SPAD XIII fighter combined with the Armistice in November ultimately rendered the Gnome obsolete.

Of the 208 wartime production Nieuport 28’s delivered by French factories to the US Air Service, 68 of them survived hostilities along with their Gnome engines. Another cache of Gnomes – a few of them still in crates – was held at the Lioré-et-Olivier factory in the Clichy commune on the northwest side of Paris. More were held by squadron maintenance crews at the front, either newly rebuilt and ready for installation or worn out from combat use and scheduled for overhaul. Another 88 Nieuport airframes would be assembled post-war from spare parts still on hand, all powered by these remaining Gnome engines. Between November 17, 1918 and August 20, 1919, all of these airplanes, engines and spare parts were collected and shipped back to the United States.

At least 53 of these Gnome-powered Nieuports were still in use as Air Service trainers in June 1920, dispersed throughout military airfields in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Another dozen had been transferred into service with the US Navy.

Once past their useful life, these surviving Gnomes were released for sale in wooden crates as military surplus in 1924 through a private, Pennsylvania-based dealer. Two years later, the final examples of these once proud, four-thousand-dollar technological wonders were being distributed at the discount price of about twenty-six dollars each. Only a handful still exist today.

The historical Aero Marquis Nieuport 28 Limited Edition timepieces are crafted from one of these engines. Specifically, it was made from the engine block, cylinders, pistons and connecting rods of a French-produced Gnome rotary fighter airplane engine, serial number #19NCA55521, purchased by the United States Air Service in 1918 for use in a Nieuport 28 fighter airplane.

Few records on individual engines have survived, but this much is certain – the steel parts from which the case of this timepiece is made were on the Western Front in the summer of 1918, somewhere along the 65-mile stretch between Paris and the American 3rd Infantry Division’s front lines near Château-Thierry.

Since the Gnome 9N motors secured by the US Air Service were produced only in France and only by the Gnome et Rhône company, this leaves only three possibilities. The steel used in this watch case was:
Being flown in combat by pilots of the American 1st Pursuit Group in the skies between Toul and Château-Thierry, or
Awaiting front line delivery at the Gnome et Rhône factory in Paris while the German army made its final push toward the city, or
Awaiting installation in a fighter plane destined for combat at the Lioré-et-Olivier aircraft facility in Clichy on the northwest side of town.

The pistons and cylinders of Gnome engine #19NCA55521 were inspected by Sopwith’s staff as well as the specialists at Murrin Antique Aero in Greenville, Pennsylvania. These parts were found to have been used heavily during the engine’s active lifespan. The examining technician, Fred Murrin, is an expert mechanic and historian with more than 40 years experience piloting World War 1 types. Murrin examined #19NCA55521 and testified that this was one of the most heavily used World War 1 rotary engines that he’d ever seen. Disassembly of the cylinders made it clear that the engine had not been rebuilt in the intervening decades.

This means that engine #19NCA55521 saw extensive service with the United States Air Service in an original Nieuport 28 fighter airplane during or immediately after World War I. That service could only have come in front line combat during the spring and summer of 1918, or by US Air Service pilots in training prior to summer 1920, or both.

In its former life as Gnome engine 19NCA55521, the steel case of the Nieuport 28 Limited Edition GMT played a critical role in the formation of the United States Air Service. This is the steel that put American fighter pilots in the skies for the very first time.

Sopwith Watch Company supports the restoration of historic aircraft. The engine parts used in the making of this product were unsuitable for restoration and beyond repair. Thank you for helping us preserve the legacy of the Gnome rotary engine and the historic airplanes that it powered into the skies over France more than a century ago.

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