L.Opdyke French Aeroplanes Before the Great War (Schiffer)
Deleted by request of (c)Schiffer Publishing
Societe des Vehicules Aeriennes
In 1910 Dajoigny and Beaussart had built a monoplane at Mourmelon under their own name, based on the Demoiselle and called the Simplex. A slender fuselage structure, first uncovered then later covered over, changing from rectangular to triangular section towards the tail, supported a warping tailplane and small elevator, vertical surfaces above and below; a trailing rear wing surface brought up the very rear. As in the Demoiselle the pilot sat in a sling seat under the wing. A water-cooled engine was fitted at least once. In January 1911 they founded a new firm, the Societe des Vehicules Aeriennes, at Issy, and ran a flying school there with a variety of monoplanes.
In June 1911 they were building the Minima, built mostly of bamboo and doped yellow; it was to feature "ailerons under the wingtips," and used a 25 hp Rene Gillet 4-cylinder X engine. The Minima may have been a development of an earlier glider of 1910.
(Span: 6 m; weight: 60 kg without the engine installed; 25 hp Rene Gillet)
At the same time the builders announced a 2-seater to be powered by a 3-cylinder bi-rotary Ligez, which turned opposite to its own crankshaft and propeller.
By 1912 the SVA was operating 2 different monoplanes, one smaller than the other, both patterned on the Bleriot XI. The smaller differed from the Bleriot in its 4-legged undercarriage and triangular fin and tailplane. The larger had its wingtips rounded at the trailing edge only; the fuselage longerons were parallel for most of their length; the undercarriage had 6 legs, the extra set of supporting struts from the engine mount.
(Smaller monoplane: span: 7.2 m; length: 6.8 m; wing area: 10 sqm; gross weight: 320 kg; 30 hp 3-cylinder Anzani)
A monocoque machine was announced for the end of 1912, but no further information is available. A photograph dated March 1913 shows the SVA monoplanes beside a third even larger one, probable an old 2-seater Sommer with a Gnome: current publications reported without further details that the school was using 50 and 70 hp Gnome-powered aircraft.
