Nieuport-Delage NiD 590

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 590 was a French three-engined, high-wing monoplane designed for policing and other roles in the French colonies. It was one of nine prototypes built to meet a 1930 programme of the Direction Generale Technique for an all-metal aircraft with three Lorraine 9Na Algol radial engines of 220 kilowatts each, able to carry out reconnaissance, observation, policing and bombing as well as medical evacuation and general transport. Two pilots sat side by side at the front of the cabin, and behind them an open-sided arched cabin held positions for navigation, photography, radio, observation and bomb aiming, while a rear gunner covered the tail with a twin Lewis gun. It flew for the first time between 27 June and 3 July 1932 and was shown at the Paris Aero Show that November. Its empty weight was 3,403 kilograms and it reached 212 kilometres per hour at sea level. The colonial contract went to the Bloch MB.120, so only two were built.