Nieuport-Delage NiD 540

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 540 was a high-wing, eight-seat, single-engine airliner built in France and first flown in 1930, which did not reach production. Its half-wings were linked by a centre section built into the upper fuselage, riveted and metal skinned, which carried the wing and held crew and passengers on a corrugated floor. The first flight, made early in 1930 by Lasne, used a 430 kilowatt Renault 12Ki V-12 engine geared down to a three-blade propeller. By the Paris Salon of November 1930 it had a 450 kilowatt Lorraine 12Fad Courlis W-12 with a two-blade propeller, and from April 1931 a Lorraine Petrel V12. Little is known of its activities after the first flight apart from the engine changes. It carried one or two crew, had a wingspan of 23.4 metres and reached 214 kilometres per hour.