Nieuport-Delage NiD 48

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 48 was a single-engine parasol wing light fighter designed and produced by Nieuport-Delage for a French light fighter competition of 1926. Unlike many Nieuport designs of the period it was a monoplane rather than a sesquiplane, resembling the NiD 42 but without the ancillary wing, smaller, and only half the loaded weight. Its two flightworthy prototypes used Hispano-Suiza upright V-12 water-cooled engines, a 298 kilowatt 12Jb in the first and a 373 kilowatt 12Hb in the second, the NiD 48bis. The type made its maiden flight in early 1929, but official trials showed its performance was not markedly better than the heavier NiD 62 except in rate of climb, and as the NiD 62 was nearer to production work on the NiD 48 was discontinued. One prototype served as a trainer and was retired in the 1930s, and the NiD 48bis was re-engined as an aerobatic aircraft and withdrawn in 1935.