Stampe SV.4

The Stampe et Vertongen SV.4 (also known as the Stampe SV.4 or just Stampe) is a Belgian two-seat trainer/tourer biplane designed and built by Stampe et Vertongen. The aircraft was also built under licence in France and Algeria.

History

Stampe & Vertongen SV-4A OO-GWC

Stampe & Vertongen SV-4B V4

Stampe & Vertongen SV-4C OO-SPM

Stampe & Vertongen SV-4E OO-KAT

An SV.4B in the colours of the Belgian Air Force, until 2008 in the Zaventem Brussels Airport lobby

UK Stampe SV4C undergoing maintenance at Duxford

The SV.4 was designed as a biplane tourer/training aircraft in the early 1930s by Stampe et Vertongen at Antwerp. The first model was the SV.4A an advanced aerobatic trainer followed by the SV.4B with redesigned wings and the 130 hp/97 kW de Havilland Gipsy Major.

Only 35 aircraft were built before the company was closed during the Second World War. After the war the successor company Stampe et Renard built a further 65 aircraft between 1948 and 1955 as trainers for the Belgian Air Force.

A licenced SV.4C version was built in France by SNCAN (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord) and in Algeria by Atelier Industriel de l'Aéronautique d'Alger, the two firms completing a combined total of 940 aircraft. The postwar SV.4Cs were widely used by French military units as a primary trainer. Many also served with aero clubs in France, numbers of which were later sold secondhand to the United Kingdom and other countries.

Variants

SV.4

prototype

SV.4A

aerobatic trainer with 140 hp/104 kW Renault 4-PO5 engine

SV.4B

improved version with 130 hp/97 kW de Havilland Gipsy Major I. Post-war trainers for the BAF were fitted with more powerful Cirrus Major or Gipsy Major X

SV.4C

licence built version with 140 hp/104 kW Renault 4-Pei engine

SV.4D

one aircraft re-engined with 175 hp/130 kW Mathis engine

A few SV.4s have been fitted with other engines, such as the Lycoming O-320, Ranger 6 or LOM 332b. At least one aircraft fitted with a Lycoming engine (OO-KAT) has been referred to by its owners as an SV.4E.^[1]

Military operators

 Belgium

• Belgian Air Force

 Belgian Congo

• Force Publique

 France

• French Air Force
• French Army
• French Navy

 United Kingdom

• Royal Air Force
  • No. 510 Squadron RAF operated one aircraft "liberated" by Belgian pilots Léon Divoy and Michel Donnet in 1941, and flown from occupied Belgium to England.^[2]

Specifications (Post-War SV.4B)

Data from Factory drawings and

General characteristics

• Crew: 1-2
• Length: 6.80 m (22 ft 4 in)
• Wingspan: 8.385 m (27 ft 6 in)
• Height: 2.775 m (9 ft 1 in)
• Wing area: 18.06 m² (194.4 ft²)
• Empty weight: 520 kg (1146 lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 770 kg (1697 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × de Havilland Gipsy Major X or Blackburn Cirrus Major III, 145 hp (108 kW)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 101 knots (188 km/h)
• Cruise speed: 75 knots (140 km/h)
• Range: 420 km (260 statute miles)
• Service ceiling: 20,000 ft (6,000 m)

Popular Culture

Several Stampe SV.4s were used in the films The Blue Max and Von Richthofen and Brown, playing both British and German aircraft. The SE5a aircraft used in the film Aces High were modified SV.4s. The aircraft were fitted with revised engine cowlings, modified tailfins and dummy machine-guns to look the part of First World War scouts.

In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade there is a scene in which Indiana Jones escapes from a Nazi airship in an SV.4. The film makers took artistic license in fitting an open canopy machinegun turret in the aft cockpit.

The planes 'Dorothy' and 'Lillian' in High Road to China (set in the 1920s) are depicted by SV.4s, fitted with Lewis Guns.

The plane in "The Mummy" was a modified version of an SV.4, having a tail gun turret added.

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

• Boeing-Stearman Kaydet
• Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann
• de Havilland Tiger Moth

Related lists

• List of aircraft of the RAF

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stampe SV.4.

Notes

Bibliography