Nieuport-Delage NiD 48

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 48 was a French single-engine parasol wing light fighter aircraft, designed and built in the 1920s. Its performance was not markedly better than that of the much heavier Nieuport-Delage NiD 62 then going into production, so only two were flown.

Design and development

The Nieuport NiD 48 was designed for a French 1926 light fighter competition. Unlike many Nieuport designs of the period it was not a sesquiplane but a monoplane, its wing mounted like those of the sequiplanes over the fuselage in parasol wing configuration. It looked much like a NiD 42 with its ancillary wing removed but had smaller dimensions and only was half the loaded weight. It had a straight-edged, parallel chord wing with blunt tips, full span ailerons with slightly curved trailing edges and a small cutout in the trailing edge over the cockpit for better pilot visibility. As on the NiD 42, the wing was braced with Y-form struts from the undercarriage axle support structure, assisted by a cabane of two transverse inverted Vs from the fuselage in front of the cockpit.^[1]

Both NiD 48s built to fly initially used types of Hiaspano-Suiza's upright V-12 water-cooled engine, with a 298 kW (400 hp) 12Jb in the first prototype and a 373 kW (500 hp) 12Hb in the second, the NiD 48bis. Behind the engine the fuselage had a circular cross-section, with the single-seat open cockpit under the wing trailing edge, tapering to the tail. The cantilever tailplane was mounted at mid-fuselage height and was broadly elliptical in plan including its unbalanced elevators. The fin was almost triangular but carried a round edged rudder, also unbalanced, which ended above the fuselage. The NiD 48 had a fixed conventional undercarriage, the mainwheels on a faired axle supported by a pair of backward leaning V-struts which also carried rectangular radiators for engine cooling. There was a tail skid.^[1]

The first airframe was completed in October 1926 and used for static load testing. The first to fly began its official tests in May 1927 with the ND 48bis following that September. In trials conducted in March 1928 the NiS 48bis, though lighter than the similarly powered NiD 62 sesquiplane bettered it significantly only in rate of climb. Since the NiD 62 was already in production it was decided not to proceed with the NiD 48.^[1]

Operational history

In July 1929 one of the prototypes went to Etampes as a trainer.^[1] In the summer of 1930 the NiD 48bis was re-engined with a 179 kW (240 hp), nine cylinder radial Lorraine Algol Junior and used as an aerobatic aircraft, registered F-AJTC; it was withdrawn from use in 1935.^[1][2]

Specifications (Hispano-Suiza 12Jb engine)

Data from Green & Swanborough 1994^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: One
• Length: 6.40 m (21 ft 0 in)
• Wingspan: 10.00 m (32 ft 10 in)
• Wing area: 18.38 m² (197.8 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 1,032 kg (2,275 lb)
• Gross weight: 1,290 kg (2,844 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Hispano-Suiza 12Jb upright V-12 water cooled, 300 kW (400 hp)
• Propellers: 2-bladed

Performance

• Maximum speed: 276 km/h (171 mph; 149 kn) at sea level
• Endurance: 1.3 hr
• Time to altitude: 16.26 min to 5,000 m (16,405 ft)

Armament

• 2 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) synchronised machine guns firing through propeller.

References

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