Nieuport-Delage Ni-D-30

Flight, January 1920

The Paris Aero Show 1919

Compagnie Generale Transaerienne.

This firm, which looks after the Paris end of the British Aircraft Transport and Travel, is showing one machine in the gallery, a Nieuport-built biplane with cabin for five passengers. The machine also carries a wireless operator, and is fitted out with wireless transmission and receiving sets. The engine is a 450 h.p. Renault, entirely cowled in, which gives the machine a speed, it is stated, of about 118 m.p.h. The radiators, three of the Lamblin type, are mounted under the front part of the fuselage between the front undercarriage struts.
The main feature of this Nieuport machine is its wing section, which is extremely thick, not unlike the Schukowsky aerofoil, or those of some of the Fokker machines. The section is, however, uniform throughout, that is to say, there is no tapering of the spars, and the section does not decrease either in chord or depth. Ailerons are fitted to the bottom plane only, and are very long, extending nearly up to the sides of the fuselage. The top plane is in two halves bolted to a cabane consisting of two pairs of N formation struts placed in the form of an inverted vee. In view of the thick wing section the speed of 118 m.p.h. is very good, and although the loading is heavy the machine probably lands quite slowly on account of the high-lift section.

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.