Stampe SV.4

SV.4
SV-4C D-EBSH
Role Two-seat trainer
Manufacturer Stampe et Vertongen
Designer George Ivanov
First flight 1933
Introduction 1947 (Belgian Air Force)
Retired 1975
Status Privately owned, or in museums
Primary user French Air Force
Number built 940


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 licensed 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 Congo
 France
 United Kingdom

Specifications (Post-War SV.4B)

Data from Factory drawings and

General characteristics

Performance

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
Related lists

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stampe SV.4.

Notes

  1. ↑ Stampe & Vertongen museum
  2. ↑ OO-ATD and the flight to freedom

Bibliography

  • The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). Orbis Publishing. 
  • Pacco, John. "Stampe & Vertongen SV-4B" Belgisch Leger/Armee Belge: Het Militair Vliegwezen/l'Aeronautique Militaire 1930-1940. Aartselaar, Belgium, 2003, pp. 85–86. ISBN 90-801136-6-2.
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