Nieuport-Delage NiD 740

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 740 was a French trimotor monoplane designed to carry night mail, built to a government requirement as a long-range mailplane prototype. Two were built in 1930. Its one-piece fuselage was built on four spruce longerons joined by frames and covered in plywood, giving flat sides and underside with a curved upper decking. It carried a crew of two, a pilot and a navigator, or three passengers in place of the mail, and was powered by three Salmson 7Ac seven-cylinder radial engines. It had a wingspan of 17.5 metres, weighed 1,501 kilograms empty and reached 230 kilometres per hour. The exact date of its first flight is not known, though several early tests had been flown by Fernand Lasne before the end of January 1930, and the later history of the two aircraft is not mentioned in contemporary French aviation literature.