The Serie A aircraft were followed from the National Aviation Shops by the improved Serie B, the single seat Serie C Microplano with an Hispano Suiza engine and the two seat Serie H parasol.

As a result of the revolution that ensued with the fall of the Carranza regime, the Mexican Army’s air component found itself reduced to a dozen airworthy aircraft in September 1920.

The first Mexican designed aircraft, the Serie A, built in some numbers by the Talleres Nacionales de Construcciones Aeronauticas for the Army. A conventional two seat two bay biplane powered by a Mexican -designed engine, the 60 hp Aztatl (Stork) six cylinder radial the only foreign items of equipment utilised by the Serie A were, in fact, the French magnetos as even the propeller was of Mexican design.

On 6 July 1917, the Serie A No 9, piloted by Army Lt Horacio Ruiz, flew the first Mexican airmail service, from Pachuca to Mexico City, and six months later, on 3 January 1918, Cadet Samuel C Rojas became the first officer to graduate from the Military Aviation School after completing his training in a Serie A aircraft. Lt Rojas was also the first pilot to perform aerobatics in Mexico, on 26 June 1918, but within nine weeks, on 5 November, the Mexican Army’s fledgeling aviation component suffered its first fatality. For some time Lt Amado Paniagua had led a small demonstration team known as the Escuadrilla Amado Paniagua to promote aviation among the Mexican populace, but on that day, his Serie A aircraft failed to recover from an “Immelmann” turn over the beach at Veracruz and spun in.

In February 1918, the Talleres Nacionales de Construcciones Aeronauticas (TNCA), or National Aircraft Manufacturing Workshops, at Balbuena Airfield, Mexico City, completed the prototype of a single-seat fighting scout to the designs of Francisco Santarini and Capt Guillermo Villasana. First own product of the National Aircraft Manufacturing Workshops.

A single-bay unstaggered biplane known as the Microplano, the aircraft was powered by a 180hp Hispano-Suiza eight-cylinder Vee-type water-cooled engine driving a Mexican Anahuac propeller, and was of metal construction. The intended armament was either one or two synchronised machine guns.

Although flight trials of the Microplano were allegedly satisfactory, no series production was undertaken owing to the overthrow of the Carranza regime and the ensuing civil war.

Engine: 180hp Hispano-Suiza
Wingspan: 8.00 m / 26 ft 3 in
Wing area: 18.00 m2 / 193.75 sq ft
Length: 6.60 m / 22 ft 8 in
Height: 2.55 m / 8 ft 4 in
Empty weight: 460 kg / 1014 lb
Max take-off weight: 650 kg / 1433 lb
Max speed: 220 km/h / 137 mph