Nord 1601

Under the designation Nord 1601, Nord designed a single-seat twin turbojet-powered aircraft to investigate the aerodynamic capability and efficiency of swept wings and related high-lift devices. A cantilever mid-wing monoplane with 33° of sweepback on the wing leading edges, the N 1601 had a wing incorporating ailerons, spoilers, leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps. The configuration included swept tail surfaces, and there were retractable tricycle landing gear and two 1814kg thrust Rolls-Royce Derwent 5 turbojet engines in underslung wing-mounted nacelles on each side of the fuselage. The pilot was accommodated on a Martin-Baker ejector seat in a cockpit enclosed by a jettisonable canopy. The aircraft was first flown on 24 January 1950, and the research programme of the 12.46m span N 1601, which had a maximum speed of 1000km/h and a ceiling of 12000m, provided valuable design information. An all-weather fighter version of this aircraft was allocated the project number N 1600 but was not built.