Nikitin designed the NV-6 as an aerobatic aircraft which was unusual in the USSR in 1939. The fuselage of welded KhMA steel tubing, and lower wing were taken from the NV-1 sporting aircraft of 1933. A new wooden upper wing supported by I struts and cabanes, duralumin tail surfaces with fabric covering and cantilever faired undercarriage attached to the fuselage completed the NV-6. Flight testing was begun by Nikitin and Schyevchyenko during December 1940 but the onset of the Great Patriotic War stopped further work.