Gnome and the Rhone

The Company of the Engines Gnome and the Rhone was a French company which manufactured Moteur S for the Aviation, then Motocyclette S until in the years 1950. It was the result of fusion in 1915 of the companies Gnome , founded in 1905 by the brothers Louis Seguin and Laurent Seguin and the Rhone , created in 1897 by Louis Verdet. It was nationalized at the conclusion of the Second world war to form SNECMA, amalgamated recently in Safran.

Aviation

Engines Gnome

Louis and Laurent Seguin buy the license of engines with Gnome oil at the German firm Motoren Fabrik Oberursel and manufacture with Gennevilliers engines for boats then for cars before launching out, as of 1905, on a new crenel: the Radial engine rotary for Airplane. The engine gnome with the characteristic to have a fixed crankshaft: in fact the driving frame turns around.

See also: Driving rotary

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Their first model turns in 1909: the Omega Gnome with 7 cylinders weighing 75 kg delivers the power of 50 CH. It makes it possible Henri Farman to exceed 100 km/h as of 1910 on its plane Voisin.

The first models of the Omega used an intake system of the fuel since the connecting rod assembly through the Piston, thus avoiding the mechanisms (cams, push rods and references) of orders of Soupape S and the rotary pipes of admission. To reduce maintenance and to decrease consumption, the engine evolves/moves with an exhaust valve ordered and an admission by lights. In the same way the lighting of the candle is done without cable, by proximity with a source with high voltage during rotation.

These engines although simple were expensive to manufacture because of the additional constraints imposed by the rotation and of the balancing of precision of the unit.

Engines the Rhone

The Industrial society of the engines the Rhone manufactures since 1897 industrial engines. About 1909, it recruits Louis Verdet to launch out on the market of the engines of plane. This one creates in 1910 a first prototype with 7 star cylinders developing 50 ch and weighing 90 kg succeeding, in 1911, to the model 9C with 9 star cylinders of 11 L of cubic capacity developing 70 then 80 ch. L' following year a version of 15 L of cubic capacity provides 110 ch. Ces engines are more conventional than the Gnome with 2 valves per cylinder and of the rotary pipes of admission.

Fusion

The January 12th 1915, the Gnome company absorbs the company the Rhone to form the “Company of the engines Gnome and the Rhone” which produces 25  000 engines, more 75  000 pennies license, during the First World War. It is the technology of Louis Verdet who is sophisticated for series 9 outcome with the 9J of 110 ch.

It is then current to see French, English or American fighter pilots, to face their German and Austrian counterparts on aircraft equipped with same the 9J manufactured under license by Oberursel.

Radial engines

In 1921 the company buys the license of the Radial engine Jupiter, then Titan, of the company Bristol Airplane Company. It is not long in extrapolating of them its own productions, the series K which will be one of great successes of the Entre-deux-guerres: the 5K Titan of 260 ch, the 7 cylinders 7K Titan Major of 370 ch, the 9 cylinders 9K Mistral of 550 ch.

Engines in double star will follow, the 14K Mistral Major of 625 ch in 1929 which will reach 1  025 ch with a compressor in 1933 and the 14N of 1100 with 1210 ch. Ils will equip in particular Bloch MB.210, Bloch MB.152, LeO 451 and Amiot 351. The ultimate development will be the 14R of 1  290 with 1  580 ch in 1940.

Nationalization and creation of Snecma

In 1945, the company, which suffers from technical delay after four years of German occupation and whose factories are destroyed (bombardments combined in 1944) is nationalized, at the same time as several small manufacturers (Gnome had already taken the control of Lorraine-Dietrich in 1941), and gives rise to the Snecma, acronym of “National company of Study and Construction of Engines of Aviation”.

Motor cycles

At the conclusion of the First World War, the fall of the military orders pushes the company to be diversified, in particular in the production of Motocyclette S. It buys the license of the British motor bikes ABC Motors and improves them then, as from 1923, produces its own motor bikes been driven by engines going of 175 cm ³ 2 times (standard " E") with the 4 times of 500 cm ³ with side valves (standard " C").

Is presented, in 1926, it standard D: D2, D3 then D4 are been driven by one-cylinder engines of 500 cm ³ to Soupapes at the head.

The buckled plate executives appear only as from the Thirties and relate to the Major, Super Major, D5, 500 V2 then CV2; these two last are been driven by a motor two cylinders flat (flat-twin) of 500 cm ³. More popular models are produits : Junior (driving one-cylinder of 250 cm ³), m2 and CM2 (driving of 350 cm ³).

Starting from 1937, appear models X, initially 750 X then the 800 AX2.

During the Second world war, the 800 AX2 is manufactured by the factories Terrot with Dijon.

After the Second world war, the production is continued by the Snecma. It will be the series of the R and L been driven by engines 2 temps : R1 (100 cm ³), R 2, R 3 and R4 (125 cm ³), L5 (175 cm ³), LX5 (200 cm ³) and of a traditional framework.

The production ceased definitively in 1959.

External bonds

  • history of the group on the site Snecma/Safran
  • the engines Gnome and the Rhone 14K on the site of the Academy of the Air and the Space of Aquitaine
  • the operation of the engine Omega " Monosoupape" {{in}}
  • the Association of the Friends of the Snecma Museum to Villaroche
  • History of the motor bikes the Gnome-Rhone
  • the motor bikes the Gnome-Rhone series R and L

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