Эдуард Nieuport: Ұшқыш, инженер және авиацияның алғашқы новаторы

Édouard de Niéport, usually known as Édouard Nieuport (1875–1911) was the co founder with his brother Charles of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company, Société Anonyme Des Établissements Nieuport, formed in 1909 at Issy les Moulineaux. An engineer and sportsman, Édouard was also one of the pre eminent aeroplane designers and pilots of the early aviation era (from the late 19th century to the outbreak of World War I in 1914). As a pilot, he set a new world speed record of on 11 May 1911 at Mourmelon, flying his Nieuport II monoplane, powered by a engine of his own design. Later that year at Châlons, he bettered this time with a new record of Racing for the Gordon Bennett Trophy in July at Eastchurch, he finished third, beaten for first place by one of his own aircraft, flown by the American pilot C. T. Weymann.

He was born on 24 August 1875 in Blida, Algeria, the son of an officer in the French army. and he had a brother and fellow aviator, Charles de Niéport. He died after the wing of his aircraft stalled during a turn during a military display on 16 September 1911 in Charny, France.

His brother Charles de Niéport, who continued his work, died in a crash landing barely a year later on 24 January 1913. Édouard's designs continued to be built by the company and licensed for production internationally. His aircraft were all monoplanes, not the biplanes for which the company became famous during the First World War. His monoplanes were sold throughout Europe, and involved in many other aviation firsts:
The first round trip over the Mediterranean in 1913, flown by Lieutenants Destrem and de l'Escaille of the Marine Nationale from St. Rafael to Ajaccio in Corsica and back. A world altitude record of 20,079 ft (6,120 m) by Georges Legagneux, also at St. Raphael. An epic seven week flight from Villacoublay to Cairo by pilot Marc Bonnier and a passenger. Some of the first tests of machine gun mounting on aircraft. The first ever successful loop, performed by Lieutenant Pyotr Nesterov of the Imperial Russian Air Service on 20 August 1913. In January 1914 Gustave Delage joined the company and by converting the type 10 monoplane into a sesquiplane ("one and a half wing" aircraft with a full chord upper wing and a single spar, half chord lower wing), began to develop the highly successful for which the Nieuport company would be famous for during World War I.