E.N.M.A Flecha Aircraft Engine

Condition: Static Display

Empresa Nacional de Motores de Aviacion, S.A.

 

National Aircraft Engine Company of Spain

 

In July 1917, the Elizalde company began designing a new aviation engine. For these engines Elizalde contributed its most important innovation bronze-aluminum cylinder heads, which it applied to both automobile and aviation engines, with which it was possible to increase compression and therefore performance avoiding heating problems and self-ignition.

 

The company continued exclusively with automobiles, to return to aviation engines as of 1925 and dedicate itself to them exclusively. In 1926 Elizalde began deliveries of the 450 hp Lorraine W12 engine for the Breguet XIX aircraft manufactured by Construcciones Aeronáuticas . Manufacturing under license offered a new opportunity for survival to the company that maintained a clear vocation for its own design. The founder's son, Salvador Elizalde Biada, designed a new family of 5, 7, and 9-cylinder radial engines, with powers of 180, 320 and 420 hp, called DRAGÓN in which all the components and raw materials were produced.

 

After WW2, more engines whose designs were based on models from the 1930s such as the Beta 770 CV, the Tigre 125 CV, and the Sirio 500 CV of entirely original design. ELIZALDE SA , remained in the hands of the family until 1951 when it was nationalized, changing its name to ENMA,SA (National Aviation Engine Company). The design of the Flecha 90 HP and Alción 275 HP engines was the work of a excellent technical department; The 400 kg thrust Turbomeca Marboré jet engine went on to be produced under license for the Hispano HA 200 Saeta Jet.