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Fournier

Owned and operated by Bob Grimstead

This Sportavia Fournier RF-4D was the first ever mass-produced motor-glider. Designed in the early 1960s by a French artist, musician, and sculptor Rene Fournier, as his personal high-efficiency aeroplane, it was refined in stages before going into production in Germany, where around 250 were built in the late 1960s.

The engine is a 1200cc Volkswagen car engine with a single magneto ignition, producing 39 horsepower (on a cool day). With the engine stopped, it has a twenty-to-one glide ratio.

The fabric-covered airframe is entirely built of wood, mildly aerobatic and remarkably strong, being designed to withstand 13g, and tested to 13.8g.