National origin: France
Manufacturer: Nieuport-Delage
First flight: 1924
Primary user: Aronautique Militaire
Number built: ca. 30

The Nieuport-Delage NiD 42 was a fighter aircraft built in in France in the early 1920s, the first in a family of designs that would form the backbone of the French fighter force over the next decade.

As first built, the NiD 42 was a highly-streamlined parasol-wing monoplane with a monocoque fuselage and an open cockpit and a single prototype was built to this design. Soon afterwards, Nieuport-Delage selected the new fighter to enter the 1924 Coupe Beaumont, building two examples of a modified version, the NiD 42S, on which the wings were mounted directly to the sides of the upper fuselage. To further streamline the design, the radiators were installed on the upper surface of the wing. One of these machines was flown by Joseph Sadi Lecointe in the race of 22 June and was the only one out of the five entrants to actually finish the course. Indeed, having finished the prescribed six laps of the 50-km course, Sadi-Lecointe flew another four laps to break the world speed record over a 500-km closed-course. His average speed in winning the Coupe Beaumont was 311 km/h (194 mph) and over the 500 kilometres was 306 km/h (191 mph), beating the previous record for the latter by 36 km/h (23 mph). On 15 February the following year, Sadi Lecointe took a NiD 42S up to a speed of 375 km/h (234 mph) and went on to win the 1925 Coupe Beaumont with a NiD 42S on 18 October with an average speed of 313 km/h (194 mph).

While the NiD 42S achieved these distinctions, development of the fighter version also continued. Nieuport-Delage designed two further such variants in 1924; a single-seater designated NiD 42 C.1 and a similar machine with a second cockpit for a tail gunner with a machine gun in a ring mount, designated the NiD 42 C.2. One of the latter was exhibited at that year's Salon de l'Aronautique, along with a NiD 42 C.1 nose section to illustrate an alternative engine mount. These differed from the original NiD 42 fighter in having a second, small wing added to the lower fuselage, turning the parasol monoplane into a sesquiplane; a design feature adopted from the NiD 37.

Only two examples of the two-seater were built, but Nieuport-Delage entered the single-seater in the 1925 concours des monoplaces, a competition by the Army's Technical Service to find a replacement for the aging NiD 29. The NiD 42 was selected from a field of eleven competitors, and an order for 50 aircraft was placed, of which 25 were eventually delivered. Although impressive at the time it was designed, technology had already surpassed the NiD 42 when it entered service in 1928. Nevertheless, it provided the foundation for further development as the NiD 52 and NiD 62

Variants

NiD 42 - prototype parasol-wing monoplane fighter (1 built)
NiD 42S - high-wing monoplane racer (2 built)
NiD 42 C1 - single-seat sesquiplane fighter (27 built)
NiD 42 C2 - two-seat sesquiplane fighter (2 built)

Operators

France

Aronautique Militaire
2e Rgiment d'Aviation
3e Rgiment d'Aviation
38e Rgiment d'Aviation

Specifications (NiD 42 C1)

Data from aviafrance.com

General characteristics

Crew: One pilot
Length: 7.50 m (24 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 12.00 m (39 ft 4 in)
Height: 3.00 m (9 ft 10 in)
Wing area: 30.9 m (332 ft)
Empty weight: 1,260 kg (2,780 lb)
Gross weight: 1,808 kg (3,998 lb)
Powerplant: 1 x Hispano-Suiza 12Hb, 336 kW (450 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed: 265 km/h (165 mph)
Range: 400 km (250 miles)
Service ceiling: 7,325 m (24,000 ft)

Armament

2 x fixed, forward-firing machine guns in wings
1 x fixed, forward-firing machine gun in engine cowling

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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft. London: Aerospace Publishing.
"The Nieuport-Delage Type 42". Flight: 461-62. 24 July 1924. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200461.html. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
"The Paris Aero Show 1924". Flight: 766-77. 11 December 1924. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200766.html. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
Parmentier, Bruno. "Nieuport-Delage NiD-42". Aviafrance - Un sixcle d'aviation franxaise. http://www.aviafrance.com/8525.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
"'Sadi' wins Beaumont Cup". Flight: 416. 26 June 1924. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200416.html. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
"Sadi Lecointi wins Beaumont Cup". Flight: 682. 22 October 1925. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1925/1925%20-%200682.html. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
Taylor, Michael J. H. (1989). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. London: Studio Editions.

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Source: WikiPedia