The Loire-Nieuport 161 was a single-seat, single-engine, all-metal, low-wing monoplane fighter designed and built in France in 1935 to compete for a government contract.

In 1934 the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire and the Société Nieuport-Astra merged to form the Groupement Aviation Loire-Nieuport but maintained separate design offices, leading to some confusion about nomenclature, furthered by their nationalisation in 1936 as S.N.C.A.O.

[1][2] The cantilever wing of the Nieuport 161, as the first prototype was titled, was built in two parts around single spars with stressed skin covering and mounted with marked dihedral.

In plan it was strongly straight tapered, with square tips, carrying fabric covered, aerodynamically and statically balanced ailerons.

It had a conventional tailwheel undercarriage with its mainwheels mounted on single legs and retracting inwards into the wing and fuselage underside, hydraulically driven via a pair of outboard struts.