I've always thought this was an interesting discussion. The actual nationality of the minis has to be broken down in two ways. First by the air service it flew in and secondly, buy pilots that actually flew them.
By Air Service
Italy = 1
France = 7
USA = 4
Canada = 0
GB = 8
Belgium = 2
Australia = 3
Russia = 1
For the average family gamer (which is a big target market for this game) Canada, Australia and GB are basically all the same, so the GB number should really read 11 for ID purposes.
By Pilots
Italy = 1
France = 6
USA = 6
Canada = 5
GB = 4
Belgium = 2
Australia = 3
Russia = 1
For the two seaters, I only counted them once and the credit went to the pilots country only. Also of note, I only counted the prominent pilot when a plane was listed as flown by more then one person.
As you can see, the US (since everyone always points to them as the over inflated party in these discussions) is right in the middle of the pack for actual aircraft, and tied with France for number of pilots. In fact, France takes top honors in both lists! GB is hurt on pilots because they have to be split over so many different countries. The lack of Italian and Belgian planes and pilots I think is purely marketing. Keep in mind however that Nexus (and now Ares) has planned for the future. When the Hanriot HD.I shows up, I'm sure there will be at least 2 for Belgium add to both of the lists above. Also, the Caproni is going to add to the Italian lists. Keep those future planes in mind
I believe Nexus used the combo of pilots and planes to get a very broad coverage of all nations.
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