The 12Z, designated Type 89 by the company, was the final evolution of the series of

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...

V-12

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

s. The Z model had just entered production when France fell to the Germans during World War II. A small number were produced during the war but the German occupation government would not allow full-scale production to start. After the war small numbers were built to equip new designs, but the rapid introduction of the

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

ended further development.

Design and development

The 12Z differed from the earlier 12Y primarily in the use of four valves per cylinder operated by dual overhead cams, as opposed to two valves operated by a single camshaft. This gave the cylinders considerably better volumetric efficiency and faster operation, raising the RPM from 2,400 to 2,700. The engine was also designed to run only on 100

octane Octane is a hydrocarbon and an alkane with the chemical formula , and the condensed structural formula . Octane has many structural isomers that differ by the amount and location of branching in the carbon chain. One of these isomers, 2,2,4-Tri ...

fuel (instead of 87, which was common at that point) which allowed the

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...

to rise from the 12Y's 5.8:1 to the 12Z's 6.75:1. These changes raised the power from 1,000 to 1,300 hp (750 to 970 kW) at sea level. The engine continued to use a single-stage, single-speed

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

and therefore lacked the all-altitude performance of German and British designs. But tuning the supercharger for a different critical altitude improved high-altitude performance considerably, delivering 1,500 hp (1,120 kW) at as opposed to 930 hp (690 kW) at for the 12Y. Small prototype runs started in 1939, and were fitted to the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

's front-line

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

, the M.S.410 and D.520, creating the M.S.450 and D.524 respectively. Production of the main model, the 12Z-17, was just starting at the time of the armistice. Production was undertaken in Hispano-Suiza's Spanish factories where they were intended for the Hispano Aviación HA-1112 - only a few were ever used, however, because of mechanical problems with the engine. After the war a new version tuned to operate with 92

fuel, as opposed to the -17's 100/130, was built in limited numbers as the 12Z-89. Compression ratio was raised slightly to 7:1, but with the lower grade fuel the power dropped slightly to 1,280 hp (950 kW) at 2,600 rpm (1,479 hp (1,100 kW) maximum take-off). These engines apparently had the same sorts of reliability issues as the earlier -17's made in Spain, and the type never entered production.

Variants

;12Z-1 :The initial version of the engine used for development ;12Z-17 :development peak at time of the Fall of France in May 1940 ;12Z-89 :post-war development, not successful.

Applications

* Arsenal VB 10 *

Breguet 482 Breguet or Bréguet may refer to: * Breguet (watch), watch manufacturer **Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823), Swiss watchmaker **Louis-François-Clement Breguet (1804–1883), French physicist, watchmaker, electrical and telegraph work * Bréguet ...

* Hispano Aviación HA-1112 *

Ikarus S-49C The Ikarus S-49 was a Yugoslav single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft built for the Yugoslav Air Force ( sh, Ratno vazduhoplovstvo i protivvazdušna obrana – RV i PVO) shortly after World War II. Following the Tito–Stalin Split in 1948 ...

Specifications (12Z-1)

References

External links