[MilesC]

A lot of Phillip Markham's CnC article on the Bishop affair dealt with the technical details of the Nieuport 17 scout aircraft. However, he really needn't have gone to so much effort (granted he checked a lot of details to avoid a mistake) for Estourmel and the other Cambrai aerodromes were well within the range of the Nie 17. Bishop's base was at Filescamp Farm near Izel-le-Hameau (due W of Arras) and is only 35 miles due west of the town and aerodrome of Estourmel (just E of Cambrai). This distance is slightly closer for Awoignt and presumably a bit farther for Esnes. At the maximum rated speed of 100 mph for the Nie 17 it would take only 21 minutes to fly direct from one location to the other. Double that for the round trip gives only 42 minutes of transit time. The Canadian National Air Museum data gives the Nie 17 with a flying time of 90 mintues. With roughly 90 minutes of flying time this would have left Bishop with another 48 minutes to get lost, find several aerodromes, shoot one up, land, take-off, etc.

If you calculate it as distance rather than flying time then: the Military Aircraft Database and the Canadian National Air Museum give the range of the Nie 17 as 250 km (156 miles). So Bishop had 70 miles of transit flying, leaving roughly 86 miles in which to do everything he said he did.

This seems to be more than adequate. I will have to find my copy of Markham's article to review it as well.

Miles