Stampe SV-4C

The SV-4C is the version of the Belgian Stampe et Vertongen SV-4 biplane built under licence in France and French Algeria, and by far the most numerous member of the family. Its origins go back to 1939, when a French delegation made up of aerobatic pilot Michel Détroyat, Henri Ziegler and Louis Bonte evaluated the aircraft and found it ideal. According to aeroVFR, the French state then ordered 600 aircraft with the 140 hp Renault 4P engine, 400 for flying schools and 200 for artillery spotting, and in November 1939 a licence was granted to the Farman company, with a first batch planned for 1940. The war prevented that batch from being built: the material consulted documents no SV-4C production during the German occupation.

After the Liberation the licence passed to SNCAN (Société nationale de constructions aéronautiques du Nord), which built the aircraft at Sartrouville, on the outskirts of Paris; a licence was also granted to the Atelier industriel de l'aéronautique (AIA) in Algiers. The first SV-4C flew in January 1946 with a 140 hp (104 kW) Renault 4Pei engine. Production figures vary between sources. French Wikipedia and aviationsmilitaires.net give 701 aircraft from SNCAN, numbered 1 to 701, and 150 from AIA, numbered 1001 to 1150; aeroVFR speaks of 700 leaving the Sartrouville lines up to 1948 and 150 built from 1947 to 1950 at Maison Blanche in Algiers. Dutch Wikipedia gives 704 from SNCAN, the French page on the SV-4B credits SNCAN with 856, and English Wikipedia gives a combined total of 940 for the two plants. The friends' association of the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum also mentions an initial order for 800 aircraft from SNCAN followed by one for 155 from AIA.

The engine was a Renault 4P four-cylinder inverted in-line unit, the "Bengali", in the 4Pei, 4P-03 or 4P-05 sub-types depending on the source; aviationsmilitaires.net also lists 4P and 4P106 installations. The aerobatic version carried an additional fuel pump that allowed inverted flight. For the SV-4C the museum association gives a span of 8.385 m, a length of 6.81 m, a height of 2.85 m, an empty weight of 502 kg, a gross weight of 750 kg, a maximum speed of 198 km/h and a cruising speed of 170 km/h.

After the war the SV-4C equipped the Armée de l'Air, which used it until 1955, and the Aéronavale, which kept it until 1966, for basic training; it also flew in the colours of the ALAT army aviation and of the Flight Test Centre. The famous Patrouille d'Étampes flew Stampes from 1947 to 1953. The Service de l'aviation légère et sportive (SALS), forerunner of the DGAC civil aviation authority, issued them until the early 1960s to its national centres at Carcassonne, Challes-les-Eaux and above all Saint-Yan, where training ran from first solo to aerobatics and instructor rating, and whose instructors' team performed at air shows. From 1951 the SALS offered Stampes to non-profit flying clubs. From the 1950s to the early 1960s the aircraft shone in international aerobatic competitions in the hands of pilots such as Léon Biancotto, Marcel Charollais, Louis Notteghem and Jean d'Orgeix, and from 1968 to 1970 it equipped the newly formed Armée de l'Air aerobatic team.

One airframe sums up that career: SV-4C number 149, registered F-BBQL, left the Sartrouville factory in 1946, was assigned to the Saint-Yan national centre on 28 November that year and stayed there until 14 March 1955; on 3 December 1956 it was acquired by the Aéroclub de l'Armagnac at Condom, and it now belongs to the Le Bourget museum. Many club SV-4Cs were later sold second-hand to the United Kingdom and other countries. The Rothmans Aerobatic Team flew SV-4Cs from 1970 to 1973, and two appear in the film "High Road to China". Since the 1980s the SV-4C has continued to attract private pilots who love vintage aircraft, and in 2023 the Saint-Yan fly-in marked the type's anniversary with a large gathering of SV-4s.