The ENAER ECH-02 Ñamcú was a single-engine, two-seat,

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft co ...

, designed and built by the Chilean manufacturer

ENAER ENAER () (''Empresa Nacional de Aeronáutica de Chile'', "National Aeronautical Company of Chile") is a Chilean aircraft manufacturer. History The origins of ENAER can be traced back to 1930, when the Chilean Air Force formed a dedicated maintena ...

. A first prototype flew in 1989, and while the joint venture company Euro-ENAER was set up to build the aircraft in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

as the Euro-Enaer Eaglet, these plans failed when Euro-ENAER went bankrupt in 2002.

Design and development

The

Chilean Air Force "With full speed to the stars" , colours = Indigo White , colours_label = , march = Alte Kameraden , mascot = , anniversaries = 21 March ...

established an aircraft manufacturing arm, IndAer, in 1980, which began by assembling Piper PA-28 Dakotas and building the

ENAER T-35 Pillán ENAER T-35 Pillán (, Mapudungún: ''volcano'' or ''ancestral spirit'') is a Chilean propeller-driven basic trainer aircraft. The student and the instructor sit in tandem. Production ceased in 1991 after 7 years but restarted briefly in 1998. ...

military light trainer, which was developed by Piper for manufacture in Chile. IndAer became ENAER (Empresa Nacional de Aeronáutica de Chile), a separate state-owned company, in 1984. In 1986, ENAER began work on its first entirely indigenous aircraft, a two-seat, single-engined light aircraft suitable for use by

flying club A flying club or aero club is a not-for-profit, member-run organization that provides its members with affordable access to aircraft. Many clubs also provide flight training, flight planning facilities, pilot supplies and associated services, as ...

s as a

training aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristi ...

. As such, the project (at first known as the ''Avion Livano'' (light aircraft)), was to be inexpensive, with a price of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

70,000 claimed in 1991. The Ñamcú was a low-wing

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with a fixed nosewheel undercarriage. It was of all-

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

construction, with most of the structure made of

glassfibre Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

and

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethane is produced from ...

sandwich material, while the

wing spar In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles (or thereabouts depending on wing sweep) to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on t ...

s were made of a mixture of glassfibre and

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

. The crew of two sat side by side in a fully enclosed cockpit, with

gull-wing door In the automotive industry, a gull-wing door, also known as a falcon-wing door or an up-door, is a car door that is hinged at the roof rather than the side, as pioneered by Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, first as a race car in 1952 ( W194), and then ...

s. A Textron Lycoming O-235-N2C

flat-four A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...

piston engine drove a two-bladed fixed-pitch propeller. The first prototype made its maiden flight in April 1989, with three more prototypes following, one of which crashed on 11 February 1992 following a

bird strike A bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, bird ingestion (for an engine), bird hit, or bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH)—is a collision between an airborne animal (usually a bird or bat) and a moving vehicle, usually an aircraft. The term ...

, killing the pilot. After attempts to interest the Chilean Air Force in the Ñamcú failed, ENAER set up Euro-ENAER, a joint venture with the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

and Dutch investors, to

certify Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

the aircraft as airworthy in the Netherlands under European regulations, with ENAER hoping to sell 50 aircraft per year, at a price which had now increased to US$100,000 an aircraft. By 1998, it was planned to assemble a modified version of the aircraft, powered by a Textron Lycoming O-320-D2A engine, in a new factory in the Netherlands. Certification of the Eaglet was expected by late that year, with the aircraft having a price of $120,000. In early 1999, Euro-ENAER was blaming poor weather and difficulties with the

Joint Aviation Authorities The Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) was an associated body of the European Civil Aviation Conference representing the civil aviation regulatory authorities of a number of European States who had agreed to co-operate in developing and implemen ...

for delays in certification for the Eaglet, whose unit price had now reached US$160,000, although the company was now forecasting annual sales of 50 per year in Europe and 200 a year in America. Euro-ENAER finally managed to certify the Eaglet in 1992, but the company announced it needed additional funding to start production. These efforts failed, however, and Euro-ENAER was declared bankrupt later that year.

Specifications (Ñamcú)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * {{ENAER aircraft Ñamcú 1980s Chilean aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1989