The Chilean Air Force established an aircraft manufacturing arm, IndAer, in 1980, which began by assembling Piper PA-28 Dakotas and building the ENAER T-35 Pillán 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 clubs as a training aircraft. As such, the project (at first known as the Avion Livano (light aircraft)), was to be inexpensive, with a price of US$70,000 claimed in 1991.
The Ñamcú was a low-wing tractor monoplane with a fixed nosewheel undercarriage. It was of all-composite construction, with most of the structure made of glassfibre and polyurethane sandwich material, while the wing spars were made of a mixture of glassfibre and carbon fibre. The crew of two sat side by side in a fully enclosed cockpit, with gull-wing doors. A 115hp Textron Lycoming O-235-N2C flat-four 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, killing the pilot.[1]
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 and Dutch investors, to certify 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.[2] By 1998, it was planned to assemble a modified version of the aircraft, powered by a 110abbr=onNaNabbr=on 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.[3] In early 1999, Euro-ENAER was blaming poor weather and difficulties with the Joint Aviation Authorities 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.[4] Euro-ENAER finally managed to certify the Eaglet in 1992, but the company announced it needed additional funding to start production.[5] These efforts failed, however, and Euro-ENAER was declared bankrupt later that year.