For some reason, you can drive past the building at 811 Fourth St. in West Des Moines and hardly notice it. But some of the biggest players in the jet engine business – General Electric Co., Rolls-Royce plc, Pratt & Whitney and the U.S. military, for example – are quite familiar with the products that pour out of it.

Goodrich Corp.’s Turbine Fuel Technologies division, which was known as Delavan Corp. for decades, designs and manufactures nozzles that spray a fine mist of fuel into the ignition chambers of jet engines. Last year, the division shipped about 500,000 nozzles for use in helicopters, business jets, military planes and even the Airbus A380, the new No. 1 on the list of the world’s largest commercial airliners.

President Robert Yancey Jr. said the Turbine Fuel Technologies division has had strong annual growth in output and revenues for the past several years. “We expect to continue to grow in 2006 and 2007,” Yancey said. “The aerospace market has opportunities, and we expect to be fortunate enough to participate in some if not all of them.”

It’s a long way from Nelson Delavan’s original business concept, which was to sell equipment manufactured by others. The Delavan Engineering Co. began that way in 1937 and moved into production work in 1944, when it bought a company that made automobile magnetos and started manufacturing those units in a basement in downtown Des Moines.

Delavan first sold fuel nozzles for oil heaters in 1945 and jumped into the aircraft industry in 1947 with nozzles for a Pratt & Whitney engine.

Lots of products in lots of industries involve spraying liquids through tiny holes, and Delavan expanded over the years to sell products for various agricultural and industrial applications.

Colt Industries Inc. bought the company in 1983, then the renamed Coltec Industries Inc. became part of Goodrich Corp. in 1999. The Delavan Gas Turbine Products Division was renamed Goodrich Turbine Fuel Technologies in 2001.

Most of the division’s products are used on corporate and regional jet airplanes. Alan Oak, vice president of operations and strategic sourcing, said TFT is starting to pursue more sales to makers of large commercial jets, a strategy that could be boosted by the A380 connection.

“We have a large portion of the helicopter business as well,” Oak said. “Everything from Apaches and Cobras to (hospital emergency) helicopters.” Sales to the military account for a significant part of the division’s business.

TFT is in the process of adding two new work areas, one devoted to Rolls-Royce products, the other to a line of Pratt & Whitney engines for small passenger planes.

About 300 people work at the 90,000-square-foot main facility. Another 100 work at a location on Delavan Drive and 100 at a plant in Carroll.

The workforce has grown by 10 percent or more over the past two years, and openings exist now for engineers and workers in the skilled trades.