SET 3 and SET31

The SET 3 / SET 31 trainers

After the failure of the Proto SET II trainer, the SET team refused to give up. They went back to the drawing board and started to work on their new trainer. By early 1928, the designs were ready and after studying them, the Ministry of War ( who was still very willing to encourage Romania's emerging aircraft industry ) decided to place another order for two prototypes in early June 1928. As with the Proto series, one prototype was destined to serve as a test bench on the ground, whilst the other one was supposed to be used for test flights.

Work on the both SET 3 prototypes progressed quickly, and by mid 1928 the second prototype was ready to fly. Right from the start, it proved its qualities : it had both good flying performance and handling characteristics. The plane spent its the next 14 months, performing countless tests and demostrations in the presence of various official comissions. Finally, in December 1929, the Ministry of War was satisfied and decided to place an order for 10 SET 3's. By early 1930, all ten planes ordered had been manufactured and delivered to the pilot training school near the city of Tecuci. However, SET 3's great success had come a little bit earlier.

In Romania, each year a national aviation meeting was held at IAR's airfield near Brasov. One big surprise came in 1929, when a SET 3 flown by SET's chief test pilot Gheorghe "Gogu" Stefanescu won the aerobatics section of the contest. A few months later the 1st Lieutenant aviator Octav Oculeanu scored another success when he won the "Aviator Mircea Zorileanu" cup held on the Baneasa airfield.

These demostrations of SET 3's qualities convinced the Ministry of War to place a very large ( by Romanian standards ) order for 50 trainers of three different types : ten SET 31's ( virtually identical with the SET 3 except for a slightly improved performance and a reinforced undercarriage with two independent wheels ), ten SET 4 and SET 41's ( these were armed versions of the SET 3, they had a fixed forward-firing Vickers 7.7 mm machine gun and a twin Lewis machine gun manned by the observer) .

The SET 41 could also be used as night trainer, equipped with headlights and a radio set ). 30 more unarmed SET 7's ( a new plane, destined for advanced training and liaison duties ). All the SET 3' were powered by a Salmson 9Ab radial engine, who could produce roughly 230 HP.

It was this order that changed the SET company into an aircraft producing company for good. Until now, the future of the aeronautical division had been somewhat in doubt, but from here on the road was clear and SET had firmly established itself as one of the main aircraft manufacturers in Romania.

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