WOW497 Hanriot HD.1 Willy Coppens

Description

WOW491 – Hanriot HD.I Willy Coppens

The Hanriot HD.I was a WW1 single-seat fighter aircraft, developed by the French as a follow-on competitor to the successful Nieuport 17 single seat fighter. Unfortunately, it was being developed at the same time as the soon to be famous SPAD VII and was rejected for service with French squadrons in favour of the SPAD VII, and as a consequence it was not ordered into production by the French. The aircraft eventually found its way to both the Corpo Aeronautico Militare (Military Aviation Corps) of the Royal Italian Army, and Aviation Militaire Belge (Belgian Military Aviation) where it enjoyed a successful career. Several successful aces such as Willy Coppens who started their careers with the Nieuport fighters preferred the agile Hanriot to other aircraft. Small numbers were used by both French and American navies. About 1,200 examples built, 831 were produced by Italian companies under licence.

With its 110 hp Le Rhone rotary engine it was not very fast but it was extremely manoeuvrable and proved popular with pilots as a safe and comfortable aircraft to fly. To maintain a competitive climbing and altitude performance it was usual practice to restrict armament to one synchronised Vickers machine gun, although there was provision for a second gun and one was occasionally fitted.

The most famous Hanriot HD.I was the Belgium ace Willy Omer Francois Jean Coppens de Houthulst. Coppens earned his first victory on 25 April 1918 shooting down a German aircraft over St. Joris, but he soon became famous as a “balloon-buster” bagging his first observation balloon on 8 May 1918. All but three of his 37 victories were over balloons, making him the highest scoring Belgian ace.

Coppens was a show-off, often performing aerobatics over the flaming balloon inferno, which almost cost him his life.  His usual tactics was close range fire, on one attack Coppens cut a balloon loose from its ties. It bounced up beneath him and momentarily carried his Hanriot skyward.  He turned off its engine to protect the propeller and after his aircraft fell off the balloon, he restarted its engine and flew back to base. The balloon sagged into an explosion. Later when on another attack run, he was shot at from a balloon. He parked his plane on top of the damaged balloon, shut down his engine in order to protect its propeller, and waited until the balloon descended to slide off the balloon and fly away.

Coppens Hanriot HD.I with its insignia of a thistle sprig became so well known that the Germans went to extremes to try to kill him. On 3 August 1918 he shot down a balloon the Germans had booby-trapped with explosives, that when detonated from the ground narrowly missed killing him. The flaming wreckage of the balloon “fell swift as doom on the watching German staff officers, killing many and injuring the rest”.

His successful aerial fighting career ended on 14th October 1918, just before the war’s end. On this balloon attack, Coppens was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and struck in the leg. He pressed on his attack, scoring his final kill before crash landing inside his own lines. Unfortunately, his leg had to be amputated. Coppens survived the war and eventually retired from the Army in 1940 after serving as a military attaché in several foreign countries.

We think the saying “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” could have been written for Willy Omer Francois Jean Coppens de Houthulst and those brave fliers of a similar ilk.

This is a limited edition of three only 1/30 scale warbirds
The figures and accessories are shown for scale comparison purposes only and are not included.