Difference between revisions of "Category:Nieuport-Delage Ni-D. 62 family"

Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 622 from Les bleus du ciel.

The Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 62 family inhirited the sesquiplane formula (*) from the performing Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 42 fighter family which failed to reach orders (only a batch of 25 airframes for France). Having broken several world record during the mid-1920s, the Ni-D. 42 led to the Ni-D. 52 and Ni-D. 72 (both all metal) with limited commercial success (125 Ni-D 52 were ordered by the Spanish Kingdom). It was the most successful Ni-D 62 of all by using a mixed fuselage (wood and metal) and aerodynamical refinements (wing area, bigger tail to improve stability and lower airspeed) despite radiators set on the undercarriage legs. The last Ni-D 622 of 295 ordered for Army's Air Régiment was delivered in 1930 (French Armée de l'Air was born only in 1934 and so air units were under Army command). Fifty others were built for the Aéronautique Navale (French Fleet Air Arm). Two dozens airvraft of six other variants left the factory as test airframe or for foreign Air Forces (Peru, Turkey and Romania).
At a time when technical progress was rapid, the elegant sesquiplane fighter was quickly in pain to play its role. So in July 1933, the fighters sent to escort the Savoia-Marchetti S.55s of Italian General Italo Balbo flying up the Rhine valley were unable to sustain the cruise speed of the twelve double-hulled flying boat !
Several years were required before new effective fighters were tested and oredered and delivered. By the mid-1930s, the remaining Ni-D 62 and 622 were transfered to training units or schools and when war broke out in September 1939, only a hundred or so were still on the inventory including three escadrilles de chasse (fighter squadron) -all in North Africa- still flew with the type. Of course, following the Armistice of June 1940 and German policy leaving only an "Ersatz" of air army, the type was completly withdrawn and no airframe avoid scrapping.
(*) Nieuport-Delage sesquiplane are biplanes where the lower wing is significantly smaller than the other (the word, from Latin, means "one-and-a-half wings"). The arrangement can reduce drag and weight while retaining the biplane's structural advantages.

This page lists all the films that feature a variation of the Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 62 family and close design (Ni-D. 42 -or 44 or 46- and Ni-D. 52 and Ni-D. 72).

See also

• Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 62 family at Wikipedia.