Which contest did the G91 win?

NBMR-1 stands for the first NATO Basic Military Requirement, a document drawn up in the 1950s by a committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that laid out the specification future fighter aircraft designs would have to meet. It therefore did not describe a specific aircraft, but the framework that industry proposals would have to fit. In December 1953, NATO's Supreme Command published the specifications for the aircraft it was looking for: a new light tactical support aircraft.

The call for proposals drew entries from much of the Western aviation industry. Besides Fiat's G.91, the competition included the American Northrop N-156, the Dassault Mystère XXVI, the Sud-Est Baroudeur and the Breguet Br.1001 Taon on the French side, and the Aerfer Sagittario 2, the other Italian candidate on the list. Two of those names, the Taon and the Mystère XXVI, would later reappear in the ranking NATO made public, alongside the G.91 itself.

The selection of projects began on 18 March 1953 and lasted eighteen months, although the first result was not announced until 30 June 1955. That list of winning projects was ordered: in first place, the Breguet Br.1001 Taon; then the Fiat G.91; in third place, the Mystère XXVI. The Italian aircraft, therefore, did not top the contest's first ranking. The decision that ultimately counted came considerably later: in January 1958 the Fiat G.91 was officially declared the winner of the competition, and it is that ruling that is cited when identifying Fiat's light fighter as the winner of the NBMR-1.