PPRuNe Forums - Name that Flying Machine

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The one in my photograph is for sale, just up the road from me, for 3500€.

FV, what engine does it have?

50hp Rotax 503, I believe (although I'm not sure why anyone would use this power plant having regard to the manufacturer's exclusion clause!).

I find it a nice looking machine. Registered as an microlight (ULM in France), and I see that it sports its radio call sign F-JRPS, although we ULMers are asked not to, as these machines carry under the wing their own series of registrations based on the departmental number where it is registered (eg 25-xx for my local "Doubs"). Curious, registering the radio nationally rather than the airframe. I wonder if anyone knows if a list of these "F-Jxxx" registrations exists.
Sorry to wander off the track.
Laurence

As far as I'm aware neither the French ULM registration details nor the call signs are in the public domain - which I've always found odd as the CDN, CDNR, CNRA, historique and planeur registration details can be accessed on the DGAC website.

Displaying the call sign on ULMs seems to be becoming increasingly more common nowadays.

What I do find odd is that ULMs display their registration letters and numbers on the underside of the wing but not on the fuselage - contrary to the practice for all other French civil registered aircraft. Is there a reason for this and, if so, does anyone know what it is?

FV: I assume that the registrations under the wing are to allow easy identification of the ULM should they (heaven forbid) ever be seen flying a bit low. In fact these underwing numbers are of giant size (maybe the large "14" you can see in your photo (post 1458) is part of its Calvados identity). But why the F-Jxxx is not displayed as for all other French light aircraft remains a mystery.
Laurence

Here's a nice little twin. I'm not sure that its OEI performance would meet any current standards!

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8d98970490.jpg

That didn't last long! Two 40 HP Carden-Ford engines. It didn't perform very well with both engines running!

Quote:

The Bee, registered G-AEWC, first flew on 3 April 1937 at Heston Aerodrome piloted by Hubert Broad. Engine cooling problems required a forced landing, and there were immediate comments on its sluggish handling in the air and on its cross-wind taxying problems due to the narrow track undercarriage. This was the Bee's only flight; ...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e4407aeef3.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carden-Baynes_Bee

FV, levez-vous de votre fauteuil et reprenez le relais!

Thank you, I42. Now here's something that might drive you up the wall!

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....706a352a70.jpg

I'm sure I've seen a picture of that airborne! German?

Not German - and if you've seen a picture of it in flight, that's rare because it made only one flight and that was in a straight line (in the trade, a hop)!

Not the same machine then - I'm thinking of an air-to-air...

Either that's in a museum, or he was late on the round-out.

Not Belgian (although I can see why some might think it a Fairey product) nor in a museum (although the architecture in the background to the photograph might suggest to some that it is the Musée Royale de l'Armée et de l'Histoire Militaire in Bruxelles). This aeroplane comes from a well known French manufacturer, although this example was an unsuccessful one-off.

Going back to Treadigraph's post of this morning, I wonder if he was confusing this aeroplane with another model produced by this company which was German (by design and in its original manufacture). Certainly its tail shape might serve to cause that confusion.

We think it is a Sipa S-50 with a Mathis G8R inverted vee engine of approx 200 chevaux.
Picture possibly taken at the Grand Palais Exposition 1946 ??

OH if correct.

Then, sir, you think correctly on both counts. The SIPA S.50, the 1946 Paris Salon and OH it is!

Thanks FV - it was a good/difficult challenge :)

sorry about the OH but I do not have the knowledge to post a difficult challenge!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fauteuil volant (Post 10768232)

As far as I'm aware, very little is known and has been written about Miles' Gnat. The main source of which I know is Don Brown's 'Miles Aircraft since 1925' (Putnam). In that he says:

'With the help of a friend, F.Wallis, he [Miles] evolved the 'design' of a small biplane known as the Gnat. Having completed the few drawings they thought necessary, they started construction, using as longerons the ash chassis of a small sports car which Miles had been building.'

'At length, the airframe of the Gnat was practically complete except for covering with fabric. A small two cylinder engine of 698cc was bought, complete with a 4 ft diameter airscrew, still in the author's possession, which had been used in one of the aeroplanes built for the Lympne competitions of 1923.'

Broadly the same information is related by Arthur Ord-Hume in 'British Light Aeroplanes - their Evolution, Development and Perfection 1920 - 1940' (GMS). However he says that the engine was to have been a 698cc Blackburne (which strongly suggests that it was a V twin Tomtit). I've looked carefully, again using a magnifying glass, at the close-up, taken from the original photograph, of the engine of the aeroplane in the photograph. Allowing for the low resolution and concomitant lack of clarity, whilst one might argue that it has features which suggest that it isn't a Tomtit it would be a brave man who, based on that evidence, would assert that it definitely is not a Tomtit! Thus that possibility must remain.

'Shoreham Airport Sussex - The Story of Britain's Oldest Licensed Airfield' (T.M.A.Webb & Dennis L. Bird) contains the following interesting snippet of information concerning the year 1914.

Quote:

Earlier the Cedric Lee Company had won a contract to manufacture Be.2c wings. With wages earned from this contract, Charles Gates and another carpenter named Fred Wallis started making their own plane using parts from an ancient Bleriot monoplane, and a three cylinder Anzani engine. They built it in a room above a boot-repairer's shop in Southwick, and later in a garage just south of the railway in Southwick.

It resembled a Caudron biplane, and they got as far as making the body, mounting the engine and constructing the wings. However, they were not to complete its construction as Gates would leave Shoreham to join up as a boy mechanic with the RNAS in May 1915. He had wanted to learn to fly, but no-one would take him seriously at Shoreham, so he just went off and volunteered for the RNAS which offered him some hope of learning to fly. In fact it was to be 1916 in far-off Dar-es-Salaam in East Africa before Charles Gates first flew as an air mechanic.

Years later in 1924, Fred Wallis would help a young Fred Miles build his first plane in his father's laundry in Portslade, using components from the partly completed Gates and Wallis plane.

Now I appreciatethat this refers to a three cylinder Anzani and the mystery machinehad a two cylinder V Anzani, but with the Miles Gnat connection, just perhaps ..... ?