Nieuport-Delage NiD 450

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 450 was a French racing floatplane, originally intended to compete for the 1929 Schneider Trophy. In the summer of 1928 the French government contracted Nieuport-Astra and Societe des Avions Bernard to build racing seaplanes for that contest. France withdrew from the contest in August 1929 after a dispute with the organizers, but development continued, and flight trials piloted by Sadi Lecointe began in February 1930. The type was then used as the NiD 650 to speed the development of the proposed 1931 entrants, the NiD 651 and NiD 652, whose engines were delayed so that those aircraft never flew. It had a thin duralumin-spar wing, a single seat, and an 890 kilowatt Hispano-Suiza 18R W-18 engine, with a quoted top speed of 560 kilometres per hour. A second NiD 650 flew on 31 August with a larger fin but was abandoned after the 1931 deadline had been missed.