FR0027 Stampe S.V.4a Aerobatics

History:
The Stampe et Vertongen S.V.4 is probably one of the Belgian aeronautical industry‘s most outstanding successes. Jean Stampe’s aim was to design a training plane with very good aerobatic capabilities, which as the SV4’s career proves, is something that he did very well.

 

The Stampe S.V.4b (“b” for bis or second version) was registered as OO-ATC. It won competitions held by the Belgian Aéronautique Militaire and the French Armée de l’Air, which were both held in the summer of 1939. The Belgians ordered thirty planes for their air force, which were delivered between December 1939 and May 1940. Michel Donnet and Léon Divoy later “liberated” the prototype backup, registered as OO-ATD, on July 4th 1941, and used it to escape from occupied Belgium to England.

The French and Belgian air forces both lacked training aircraft following WWII. In 1947, Belgium ordered sixty-five of the S.V.4b version, which differed from the first S.V.4b by using a more powerful Gipsy Major X engine, and having a removable sliding canopy. France ordered 701 SV4’s powered by a 4-POI Renault engine built under licence in Sartrouville, plus 150 more units to be built in Algeria. The Renault 4-POI powered version was designated Stampe S.V.4c. 50 Armée de l’Air Stampes used a Renault 4-PO5 engine that enabled sustained inverted flight, and so permitted aerobatics to be performed. This version was designated as the S.V.4a, with the “a” standing for acrobatie.

Stampes, although used primarily for liaison duties and training, also won many international aerobatics competitions when flown by champions such as Marcel Charollais and Léon Biancotto, amongst others. S.V.4’s may be transformed quite simply between single and dual seat configurations, but single seaters seem to be used more often in competitions.

France and Belgium sold retired Stampes to clubs and private owners. These are still quite numerous on small airports, and are often painted in attractive eye-catching liveries; for example, in Germany, S.V.4c D-EEFB may be seen, really nice in red and white. Owners and enthusiasts of this remarkably successful design are supported by the “Stampe Club”.

Specs: Single engined two-seat aerobatic capable trainer biplane. Wingspan: 8,39 m (upper wing) and 8 m (lower wing), length 6,97 m, wing area 8,06 m2, weight (empty) 529 kg, maximum weight 770 kg. With a Renault 4-PO3 engine, maximum speed at sea level 198 km/h.

Additional information, documentation:

  • All boxes contain two common plastic sprues, including two cowlings (Gipsy and Renault) and transparent parts for all versions (2 windshields for the open cockpit version, one closed canopy for the standard belgian version, and one for the Manchots aerobatic team) as well as a commmon resin sprue giving two Venturis, two humps for version a (allows to go from version c to version a, aerobatics) and one Pitot tube. A specific resin part is added, when needed.
  • The S.V.4 used by Marcel Charollais was of C type (no humps on cowling), not of A type as we have initially indicated.
  • Documentation : Les avions Stampe, Réginald Jouhaud (Wimpel Amsterdam), and the Ouest France booklet, also from Reginald Jouhaud

Camouflage schemes:

  • F-BDGI single-seat, Marcel Charollais ' S.V.4c (yellow and red), n°500
  • Same plane without letters F-BDGI, with red arrows on top of upper wing (please see box art)
  • F-BDNM, a S.V.4a at St-Yan (black 9), n°668, one of the ten first Stampe delivered to St Yan on the 10 th of April, 1948
  • D-EEFB, S.V.4c n°1077 in Germany (white and red), spendidly restored by Mr and Mrs Franz Busse