The Dewoitine D.520 was a French single-seat fighter aircraft that first flew on October 2, 1938. The development of the aircraft took longer than expected, and the first fighter units did not receive their Dewoitines until after the start of the Phoney War. They did not reach operational readiness until even later. Consequently, the burden of the initial fighting fell primarily on the D.520's competitors, the French M.S.405C1 and the American H-75A-1, which France had purchased urgently before the war to address the shortage of frontline fighters. Nevertheless, the D.520 saw combat and performed reasonably well. After France fell, some aircraft escaped to North Africa, while others remained under the control of the Vichy government and saw combat against Allied forces. Production of the D.520 continued after France's occupation, and the fighter eventually entered service with Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria, which used it primarily as a trainer. In postwar France, surviving Dewoitines served as training aircraft until 1953.

The French D.520 has been in the game since the start of the Open Beta Test prior to Update 1.27 as a part of the British aircraft research tree. It was replaced by its counterpart in the French aviation tree in Update 1.73 "Vive la France". The D.520 is a small, maneuverable fighter armed with a powerful cannon and relatively good armor protection. However, it has a low top speed and mediocre climb rate, and its machine guns alone are ineffective without support from the cannon.