Flyboys question?

5.1 dvd players and decoders under $100. no excuse....

This is accurate. Nieuport 17's had either a single Lewis on the upper wing, or a single cowl-mounted Vickers. I thought it was a pretty good movie too. While not historically accurate, it was in the right ballpark at least. It's one I definitely had to see on the big screen first. Now if I only had surround sound at home....

Actually, the Nieuport 11 and 16 had the single Lewis mounted over the wing. Attempts to fit synchronised Vickers and Lewis on those aircraft were made but reliability of early allied synchronizers wasn't good. Early Nieuport 17s were also Lewis armed but when an effective synchronizer that was compatible with the Vickers machine gun and the 110 H.P. leRhone became available Vickers guns became the norm on French Nieuport 17s. The British were less enthusiastic about synchronised machine guns and rarely fitted them. The follow on Nieuport 23, 24 and 27 were all fitted for the Vickers. Some Nieuports were seen fitted with both Vickers and Lewis, notably several Lafayette Esdcadrille aircraft including the famous aircraft shared by Lt. Thenault and Raoul Lufberry. Some pilots thought the saving of weight by having just the Vickers was beneficial, others thought the added Lewis was worth it's weight, if the finicky Vickers Jammed you still had a weapon. \ Bill Shuey

Probably 'cause that was the way a majority of 'em were armed.
The over wing Lewis gun was fitted only to a minority of Nieuport 17s and those that were equipped with the Lewis guns often had them removed to improve performance.

The synchonized Vickers was standard armament for all Nieu. 17s. The overwing Lewis gun (or Lewis guns - a few apparently carried two) was the optional armament and was in addition to, not in lieu of, the Vickers.
Not to say that there might not have been an experiment or two with some pilot or escadrille removing the Vickers and using only the Lewis(es) but that would have been decidedly non-standard.
Cheers,

Bill has it right. All French Nieuport 17's were armed with the Vickers, while a few pilots added the overhead Lewis but the extra weight decreased top end speed. For whatever reason most (if not all) British used N.17's deleted the Vickers and used only the overhead Lewis. So Flyboys got it right. Most of the standard Nieuport 17's have the single Vickers, only the top ace (Cassidy ie Lufbery) had the two guns. They must have been a field modification, using guns from earlier N. 11/16's that they had on hand. Dave