SV.4
SV-4C D-EBSH
General information
Type	Two-seat trainer
Manufacturer	Stampe et Vertongen
Designer	George Ivanov
Status	Privately owned, or in museums
Primary user	French Air Force
Number built	1050
History
Introduction date	1947 (Belgian Air Force)
First flight	1933
Retired	1975

The Stampe et Vertongen SV.4 (also known incorrectly 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 French Algeria.

Contents

• History
• Variants
• Military operators
• Specifications (Post-War SV.4B)
• In popular culture
• See also
• References
• Further reading

History

The SV.4 was designed as a biplane tourer/training aircraft in the early 1930s, by Stampe et Vertongen in 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 engine.

Only 35 aircraft were built before the company was closed during the Second World War. After the war, between 1948 and 1955, the successor company Stampe et Renard built a further 65 aircraft 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 French Algeria by Atelier Industriel de l'Aéronautique d'Alger, the two companies 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 in aeroclubs in France, numbers of which were later sold second hand to the United Kingdom and other countries. The Rothmans Aerobatic Team flew SV.4C aircraft from 1970 to 1973. ^[1]

Variants

SV.4

prototype

SV.4A

aerobatic trainer with 140 hp/104 kW Renault 4P-O5 engine

SV.4B

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

SV.4C

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

SV.4D

one aircraft re-engined with 175 hp/130 kW Mathis G.4R 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. ^[2]

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. ^[3]

Specifications (Post-War SV.4B)

Data from Factory drawings and

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 6.8 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 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 520 kg (1,146 lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 770 kg (1,698 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × de Havilland Gipsy Major X 4-cylinder air-cooled inverted in-line piston engine, 108 kW (145 hp)
  

or Blackburn Cirrus Major III

• Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch propeller

Performance

• Maximum speed: 188 km/h (117 mph, 102 kn)
• Cruise speed: 140 km/h (87 mph, 76 kn)
• Range: 420 km (260 mi, 230 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 6,000 m (20,000 ft)

In popular culture

• An SV.4 appears in the movie Biggles: Adventures in Time modified with a rear Scarff-ring turret.
• A modified SV.4 appears in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , sporting a fictional German paint scheme and a machine gun turret in the aft cockpit.
• Two SV.4C appear in the movie High Road to China, one destroyed as a result of aerial attack in the movie. They portray World War I planes, but were built after World War II
• Walter Matthau's character, Kendig, fakes his own death in an exploding SV4 over Beachy Head in the movie Hopscotch.

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

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

Related lists

• List of aircraft of the RAF

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stampe SV.4 .

Further reading

• 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.