The “Antwerp Aviation School”

Not satisfied with their pilot training during WWI, Jean Stampe and comrade-in-arms Maurice Vertongen decided to join forces and, stimulated by King Albert I, to set up their own flying school. They bought a few Fokker D.VII aircraft from the depot with German war material and settled at the new airport in Antwerp, of which Jan Olieslagers was the driving force.

In Wallonia, you already had Fernand Jacquet's flying school, which trained Walloon military pilots. On October 17, 1923, Jean Stampe and Maurice Vertongen founded their “Ecole d'Aviation d'Anvers”, on the north side of the new Antwerp airport. The entrance was on Jan Olieslagersstraat and a some sheds were set up. Jean and Maurice built their 'villa' behind the school, in the Drakenhoflaan, with its own tennis court.

They went in search of suitable aircraft in France, England, The Netherlands and Italy. At the Central firm they found what they were looking for, the Centaur, based on the de Havilland DH.6; a robust plane, extremely suitable for training. However, Central had halted all sales by 1922. At that time, 8 copies were flying in Belgium, but the owners did not wish to part with them.

Then they got an idea: "If Central can copy the DH.6, why not do the same with the Centaur?"

Their friend Boel puts them in touch with engineer Alfred Renard, who then puts the RSV.32 on the drawing board. (The 32 stands for the 32m² wing area). The first copy will be built in a dancing in Evere.

In the meantime they already bought two Fokker D.VII aircraft, from the 'military spoils' of WWI. They were registered as O-BOBE and O-BISE and were converted to two-seaters. However, they were not very suitable and consume 50 l of petrol per hour. In the meantime, a contract had been signed with General Van Crombrugge for the training of 20 pilots. Willy Coppens arranges a contract with England to represent and supply Bristol Fighters to the Belgian military aviation.