Argentine Engine Production

I.AE. 16 EL GAUCHO ENGINE
Argentina had applied to the American company WRIGHT AIRCRAFT ENGINES, a manufacturer of radial engines, for a license to build an engine with a power of close to 400 CV in Córdoba. It was granted in 1938 but subsequent commitments to supply engines for the aircraft of the US Air Force itself on the occasion of World War II, closed the shipment to Argentina of the material to build them, as well as forging molds, gauges and documentation. .

The experience acquired when the WRIGHT CYCLONE was built (and the rest of the engines under license) and the general scarcity of raw materials to supply the operation of the Factory, led Commodore Ing. Juan Ignacio San Martín, CEO of the Instituto Aerotécnico (FMA), to plan the production of national engines and to put into operation three necessary and very new technologies for Argentina:

- Manufacture of aeronautical plywood for coating that was imported from Finland (spruce pine), from the country's wood in new plants built within the Aerotechnical Institute;
- carry out the forging of steel parts, as well as the casting of aluminum alloys (Forging and Foundry Area of the Institute);
- locally produce carburettors, magnetos, #53 fuel pumps.

Assembly line of the latest series of radial engines I.Ae. 16 of 450 hp. 1946.

For manufacturing the engine, in addition, official intervention was given for the first time to the private industry of Córdoba and the Buenos Aires city. A tender is launched involving companies and workshops #54 for the production of loose parts, some of these businessmen had been trained at the Military Aircraft Factory. First Argentine conception and design aviation engine, the I.Ae. 16 EL GAUCHO was built to equip advanced training aircraft I.Ae. 22 DL, and started up for the first time on June 27, 1944. Fixed radial type engine, simple 9-cylinder star, air-cooled, with a maximum takeoff power of 450 CV at 2250 r.p.m. and an hourly consumption at cruising regime of 80-liter.

EL GAUCHO engine on a test bench with aerodynamic nacelle, as it is mounted inside the wing of the I.A. 38.

Radial engine park. In the foreground, PRATT & WHITNEY R-1830 SC-G TWIN WASP with 18 cylinders in double star with a power of 1050 CV belonging to the I.Ae.24 CALQUIN. In the background, I.Ae. 16 EL GAUCHO belonging to the plane I.Ae.22 DL.

I.A.E. 16 EL GAUCHO engine with its exhaust manifold and nationally built propeller I.Ae. 2M-B-30 mixed, wood and metal, variable pitch. Characteristics: diameter of the cylinders 127 mm; stroke 139.7mm; total displacement 15.91 l; compression ratio 6.3:1; clockwise crankshaft rotation (as viewed from the cockpit); maximum power for cruise 325, normal power for cruise 275; direct intake propeller; length 1.0465 m.

MinCyT Córdoba