Renard Epervier (Sparrowhawk)

Renard Epervier (Sparrowhawk) History

Compared to neighboring European defense powerhouses such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the Belgian aviation industry has produced few compelling domestic aircraft designs. Renard Epervier ("Sparrowhawk") was a local attempt to design a modern single-seat all-metal monoplane fighter during the interwar period.

Designed to compete with government-funded contracts for such aircraft, it unfortunately never made it past several prototype forms as it featured a foreign design.

The design of the aircraft was directed by brothers Georges and Alfred Renard, and the initial model was for the Hispano-Suiza 12J 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled, in-line 12-cylinder V-engine. As usual, the engine is mounted on the front end. The wings of the main aircraft are straight, and the shoulders are fitted with double struts derived from the lower part of the fuselage to reinforce their span. The wings are located directly in front of the cockpit, which itself is open air with only one pilot sitting in it. The fuselage then tapers to the rear where it joins the traditional monoplane tail.

The "Tail-Dragger" landing gear is fixed in flight and rolls on the main legs, a tail carriage used to pull the tail up during ground operation. Legs and wheels are streamlined to reduce drag - a common practice on many aircraft between the pre-World War II period (1939-1945).

As a fighter, Renard's design would be equipped with typical weapons of the time, an air-cooled 2 x 7.62mm machine gun mounted on a fixed forward-firing mount, firing synchronised by rotating propeller blades. This should give him enough firepower to fight contemporary enemies.

Ultimately, as the 12J engine proved too difficult to source, the Renards decided to equip their new fighter with a replacement Gnome-Rhone "Jupiter VI" series 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engine rated at 480 PS promised. A prototype with this engine was completed by Stampe et Vertongen and named "Epervier Type 2".

The aircraft completed its landmark maiden flight in 1928, but experienced a short test life and was lost due to a major yaw axis/sideslip causing it to fail to recover from a shallow/unrecoverable rotation . A second prototype was built, dubbed the "Epervier Type 2bis," and engineers used this time to introduce improved landing gear fairings and improved leggings, as well as a streamlined cylinder head. The model was built by Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques (SABCA).

The new prototype flew for the first time in 1930 and publicly competed with other models for orders from the Belgian Air Force. However, it did not make enough impression and was passed on to the Fairey "Firefly II" biplane of British origin.

Despite the failure, the third prototype - "Renard Epervier Type 3" - was built and finally tested by the Belgian Air Force itself. This hybrid build differs from its predecessor with its 480-horsepower Rolls-Royce "F" engine and an all-new wing.

However, it does little other than evaluate products and is not adopted at any level.

The Renards continued their work in this area, resulting in more pre-war types, including the R-36, R-37 and R-38 monoplanes. None of these aircraft were successful - i.e. due to foreign competition or the German invasion and subsequent occupation of Belgium during World War II.

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