During July 2002, Walther Popelier kindly sent me a few pictures of his Jodel DR.1050, the oldest of the DR.100 series aircraft still flying. I took this as the reason to make a seperate page for this aircraft, so I would be able to show all seven pictures available at that time. A few weeks later, Walther sent more pictures and infos with which I created the page below.
On 30 Dec 2000, Walther had already sent the following e-mail with some details about his aircraft:
"Dear sir,
As the owner of the oldest still flying DR100A I give some more info about my plane. The plane was originally as a DR100A, built in 1958 and in 1962 it was converted into the prototype of the DR.1050 M1 "Sicile Record", and so it is the first plane built by C.E.A. with the monobloc tail. It was officially registred in Belgium on 17/03/88 on name of Mr. Luc Dom, till 15/09/93, when I bought her. She is equipped with an O-200 engine (Nr. 2034) but is now practically ran out of hours. The plane is black painted with golden trim. The instrument panel is still original, but added with a Bendix/King KX155 720 channel radio, an Bendix/King KT76A transponder with alticode, a Trimble GPS, markers, and a 4 place voice activated intercom (see pictures below)."
The aircraft was built in 1958 at CEA (Pierre Robin's company) as a DR.100A with registration F-WIPZ. So far, there is not much known about the early history of the aircraft. David Wise mentioned that it was converted to its present 'monobloc'-configuration (DR.1050-M1, Sicile Record) probably in July of 1975, which contradicts Walther's statement that was already done in 1962 and that the aircraft was actually CEA's DR.1050-M1 prototype. Some time after the conversion, the registration was changed to F-BIPZ.
In 1988 s/n 002 was exported to Belgium with Luc Dom as the new owner and OO-IPZ as Belgian registration. Luc flew her for about five years until she was sold to the current owner, Walther Popelier.
Despite the Belgian registration the aircraft is still based in France, at Lille (Marcq-en-Baroeul) (LFQO). In recent years, Walther made quite a few trips to airshows and around France, some photos of which are shown below. During 2001, the aircraft's engine reached its TBO, and Walther decided to do a ground-up restoration, which is currently under way.
The photos below are ordered in roughly chronological order with the oldest ones shown first.
OO-IPZ as photographed in front of her old hangar at LFQO in May 1994. |
OO-IPZ at Calais-Dunkerque (LFAC) on 19 August 1995. |
OO-IPZ at her home base Lille (Marcq-en-Baroeul - LFQO) in 1998. | A view of the cockpit from the pilot's side. | Frontal view of the cockpit. |
Equipment: Bendix/King KX155 720 channel radio, an Bendix/King KT76A XPDR with alticode, a Trimble GPS, markers, and a 4 place voice activated intercom.
Walther and his nephew Hendrik before starting on a tour through France in July 2000. | Walther giving the 'thumbs up' for the flight! | |
OO-IPZ being refueled by Walther at Etampes, south of Paris. | Walther standing on the wingwalk of OO-IPZ at Maubeuge Airport (Elesmes - LFQJ) | OO-IPZ and Hendrik hangared at Etampes. |
Walther at the International Schaffen-Diest Oldtimer Fly-In (August 2000) |
Airshow Koksijde 2000 (picture by Tom Brinckman) |
OO-IPZ in flight |
Walther and his friend Patrick during disassembly and transportation of OO-IPZ for storage, in preparation of her restoration. | Walther looking at the fuselage of OO-IPZ during disassembly and transportation of OO-IPZ for storage. | OO-IPZ's fuselage after removing engine, wing and and tail surfaces. |
At the moment (summer 2002), Walther is trying to decide on a new paint scheme for OO-IPZ. He has designed several and is asking your help in deciding for one. Check out the page with Walther's Paint Schemes!
All pictures courtesy Walther Popelier unless otherwise indicated.