Posted Saturday, December 10, 2016 @ 09:18 AM
Hi Everybody,
The official English translation of René Fournier's book has at last been printed. It is a fascinating read, detailing his love of flying from the very earliest age, briefly mentioning his wartime military service, and describing how he turned a facility with art and ceramics into a thriving business.
But from that brief beginning it goes on to describe how he meticulously designed and then laboriously hand-built his first aeroplane to a formula nobody else had considered. René
wanted a graceful, versatile, but low-powered and economical personal aeroplane; one capable of flying long distances in comfort and at a reasonable speed, but also of performing decent aerobatics and with such low drag that it could even soar engine-off given strong enough thermals or ridge lift.
From that first RF-01, simply intended for his own use, René was persuaded to go into production with the RF-02 and then the improved RF3, making his elegant aeroplanes available to all. His book goes on to describe how he set up his first factory in France, recounts the many tribulations he had not only with sluggish, stifling bureaucrats but even with the utility services and exchange rates that forced him to re-locate production to Germany for the RF4, RF5 and RF5B.
René details the reasons for designing his aeroplanes they way he did, plus the technical and certification hurdles he had to overcome with these and the later RF6B (the RF6 was a four-seat Sportavia development he wasn't much involved with that became the limited-production RS180), the superb RF7 that hit a brick wall with its engine's certification, and the little-known, all-metal, nosewheel RF8.
Later come his flirtation with production in Spain, the side-by-side RF9 motor-glider and its composite derivative the RF10, and all the problems that re-design caused.
Finally he tells of the lovely, lightweight RF47 trainer, beset by administrative, bureaucratic and funding problems and the eventual liquidation of his delightfully rural production facility.
Despite his continual problems (the original book was entitled 'My Dream and My Battles') René's optimism, dedication, common sense and determination shine through.
This is a marvellous book, which I have already read avidly three or four times, and I can thoroughly recommend it to all Fournier enthusiasts. René's tale gallops along, but it's a long one, filling almost 440 pages. There are plenty of illustrations too. I must be objective and mention this translation, which is not the best I've seen, being slightly stilted in places and exhibiting a fair sprinkling of typos, but believe me, they don't detract from the gripping narrative. This First Edition is limited to just 100 copies, so you will have to move fast if you want one.
The price is 38 Euros, with shipping to UK and Europe at 14 Euros, and to the rest of the world, 18 Euros. Order from René himself at 2 rue de la Halbuterie, 37270 Athée-sur-Cher, France. I have tried for three months, through Rene's son Frederic, to find out whether there is any electronic method of payment, but despite reminders haven't received any reply, so unless you have any better ideas I guess you'll have to send Euro banknotes well disguised against temporary postal workers in a sturdy opaque (brown?) envelope with a typed label, so that it looks like a bill, not money.
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV