Flight, December 1921

The Paris Aero Show - 1921

NIEUPORT-ASTRA ET COMPAGNIE GENERALE TRANSAERIENNE
50, Boulevard Gallieni, Issy-les-Moulineaux

   The third machine is a type "30 T2" Nieuport-Delage, a cabin machine with seating accommodation for six passengers and an open cockpit for pilot and engineer in front. It chiefly remarkable for a very pronounced negative stagger of the planes, the top one of which has a very much greater span than the lower, the extensions being braced by sloping struts. One cannot help wondering who designed this machine; it certainly does not share with other Nieuport-Delages that beauty of lines and proportions which characterizes the smaller machines. The cabin is comfortable, and the high speed is fairly good (about 109 m.p.h. at ground level), but certainly not startlingly so, in view of the fact that the power expenditure is 70 h.p./passenger. The engine is a 420 h.p. Darracq-Coatalen. It should be pointed out, however, that a large petrol supply is carried - sufficient for 7 hours' flight at full throttle. Obviously this reduces the number of passengers, and, if reduced to four hours' duration, the useful load would be increased by nearly 700 lbs. As regards actual weight, and assuming that the cabin had room for them, this would mean another four passengers, bringing the total up to 10, with a pilot and engineer in front, raising the total number of seats to 12. For 420 h.p. this is not bad, and the performance of 109 m.p.h. for a power loading of 18-3 lbs./h.p. is above the average.
   The general characteristics of the Nieuport-Delage "30 T2" are as follows: Length overall, 36 ft. 2 ins.; span, upper plane, 59 ft. 1 in.; height, 14 ft. 1 in.; wing area, 878 sq. ft.; engine, 420 h.p. Darracq-Coatalen; weight, empty, 4,260 lbs.; weight of fuel, 1,585 lbs.; useful load, 1,850 lbs.; total weight, 7,695 lbs.; power loading, 18.3 lbs./h.p.; wing loading, 8-75 lbs./sq. ft. Maximum speed near ground, 109 m.p.h.; at 3,300 ft. 106-5 rn.p.h.; at 6,500 ft., 102-3 m.p.h.; at 10,000 ft., 96 m.p.h.; at 13,000 ft., 91-3 m.p.h. Climb to 3,000 ft. in 8 mins. 35 secs.; to 6,500 in 19 mins. 15 secs.; to 10,000 in 36 mins. 45 secs.; and to 13,000 in 1 h. 3 mins.; ceiling, 14,750 ft.