fate automobiles defunct aviation now part of safran founded june 14 1904 founders emilio de la cuadra marc birkigt products automobiles aviation components website www.hispano suiza sa.com hispano suiza literally spanish swiss was a spanish automotive engineering company and after world war ii a french aviation engine and components manufacturer . it is best known for its luxury cars and aviation engines pre world war ii . in 1923 its french subsidiary became a semi autonomous partnership with the spanish parent company . in 1946 the spanish parent company sold all its spanish automotive assets to enasa . in 1968 the french arm was taken over by the aerospace company snecma now a part of the french safran group . 1 hispano suiza designed the first 4 cylinder 16 valve engine and the car considered to have been the first sports car the hispano suiza 45 cr . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 world war i 1.3 1918 1936 1.4 spanish civil war and wwii 1.5 1950s today 2 cars 3 aircraft 4 aircraft engines 5 gallery 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit early years edit in 1898 a spanish artillery captain emilio de la cuadra started electric automobile production in barcelona under the name of la cuadra . in paris de la cuadra met the swiss engineer marc birkigt 1878 1953 and hired him to work for the company in spain . la cuadra built their first gasoline powered engines from a birkigt design . at some point in 1902 the ownership changed hands to j. castro and became f brica hispano suiza de autom viles spanish swiss automobile factory but this company went bankrupt in december 1903 . yet another restructuring took place in 1904 creating la hispano suiza f brica de autom viles under castro s direction also based in barcelona . four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half ; a 3.8 litre and 7.4 litre four cylinder and a pair of big six cylinder engines were produced . this company managed to avoid bankruptcy and its largest operations remained in barcelona until 1946 where cars trucks buses aero engines and weapons were produced . other factories in spain were at ripoll seville and guadalajara . in 1910 jean chassagne competed with a hispano suiza together with works drivers pilleveridier and zucarelli and in the coupe des voiturettes boulogne and the catalan cup races he gained 2nd and fourth places respectively . france was soon proving to be a larger market for hispano s luxury cars than spain . in 1911 an assembly factory called hispano france began operating in the paris suburb of levallois perret . production was moved to larger factories at bois colombes under the name hispano suiza in 1914 and soon became hispano s main plant for producing the largest most costly models . world war i edit a brussels museum preserved hispano suiza hs .8 a sohc aviation engine from world war i with the start of world war i hispano suiza turned to the design and production of aircraft engines under the direction of marc birkigt . his chief engineer during this period was another swiss louis massuger . traditionally aircraft engines were manufactured by machining separate steel cylinders and then bolting these assemblies directly to the crankcase . birkigt s novel solution called for the engine block to be formed from a single piece of cast aluminum and into which thin steel liners were secured . manufacturing an engine in this way simplified construction and resulted in a lighter yet stronger more durable engine . thus birkigt s new construction method created the first practical and what are commonly known today as cast block engines . his aluminum cast block v 8 design was also noteworthy for incorporating overhead camshafts propeller reduction gearing and other desirable features that would not appear together on competitor s engines until the late 1920s . another major design feature for the later hs .8 b line was the use of a hollow propeller shaft for both the 8b and 8c gear reduction versions which when used for the hs .8 c versions specifically engineered to accommodate one to allow heavy calibre usually 37 mm projectile firing through the hollow propeller shaft avoiding the need for a synchronization gear a feature used in future hispano suiza military engines . hispano suiza s aero engines produced at its own factories and under license became the most commonly used aero engines in the french and british air forces powering over half the alliance s fighter aircraft . 3 1918 1936 edit after world war i hispano suiza returned to automobile manufacturing and in 1919 they introduced the hispano suiza h6 . the h6 featured an inline 6 cylinder overhead camshaft engine based on the features of its v8 aluminum world war i aircraft engines and had coachwork done by well known coachbuilders like hibbard & darrin and d ieteren . 4 licences for hispano suiza patents were much in demand from prestige car manufacturers world wide . rolls royce used a number of hispano suiza patents . for instance for many years rolls royce installed hispano suiza designed power brakes in its vehicles . in 1923 the french arm of hispano suiza was incorporated as the soci t fran aise hispano suiza the spanish parent company retaining control with 71 % of the share capital . the french subsidiary was granted a large degree of financial and project independence to bring design and production direction into closer contact with its main markets . this further increased the importance of the bois colombes plant in the production of luxury cars and while the spanish operations continued to produce luxury cars mostly the smaller less expensive models production in spain also moved increasingly to the producing buses trucks and aircraft engines at several plants located around the country . through the 1920s and into the 1930s hispano suiza built a series of luxury cars with overhead camshaft engines of increasing performance . on the other hand in the 1930s hispano suiza s v 12 car engines reverted to pushrod valve actuation to reduce engine noise . during this time hispano suiza released the 37.2 hispano suiza car built at the hispano works in paris . hispano suiza stork hood ornament . the mascot statuette atop the radiator after world war i was the stork the symbol of the french province of alsace taken from the squadron emblem painted on the side of a hispano suiza powered fighter aircraft that had been flown by the world war i french ace georges guynemer . in 1925 carlos ballester obtained permission to represent hispano suiza in argentina . the agreement consisted of a phase in which the chassis were imported followed by complete domestic production in argentina . thus hispano argentina f brica de autom viles hafdasa was born for the production of hispano suiza motors and automobiles and also the production of spare parts for other car truck and bus manufacturers . spanish civil war and wwii edit after the outbreak of the spanish civil war in 1936 the regional government of catalonia on behalf of the second spanish republic collectivized control of hispano suiza s spanish factories and placed the company on a war footing . the company was divided into three divisions aircraft engines and cannons cars and trucks machine tools because of the international isolation of the spanish republic the spanish arm of the company suffered from shortages . in 1937 the french government took control of the french subsidiary of hispano suiza with a 51 per cent share of the capital for the provision of war materiel renaming the company la soci t d exploitation des mat riels hispano suiza . in 1938 the french company ceased automobile production and concentrated on aircraft engine production . at the time hispano suiza had just introduced a new series of water cooled v 12 engines and the hispano suiza 12y was in great demand for practically every type of french aircraft . however without the spanish factories hispano suiza lacked the capacity to deliver enough engines for the rapidly growing french air force and many new french fighter aircraft remained grounded for the lack of an engine when world war ii began . a development of the era were a series of 20 mm autocannon first the hispano suiza hs .9 followed by the hispano suiza hs .404 . the 404 was licensed for production in britain and equipped almost all raf fighter aircraft during the war . production was also set up in the us but these versions never matured even though the usaac and us navy both wanted to use it in place of their existing .50 bmg weapons . a lesser known success was the hispano suiza hs .820 a higher performance 20 mm design that was also used in the us as the m139 . a variation of the 20 mm guns used on the lockheed p 38 lightning aircraft were produced by international harvester . 5 in 1970 hispano suiza sold their armaments division to oerlikon the hs .820 becoming the kad . in 1940 hispano suiza together with the spanish bank banco urquijo and a group of spanish industrial companies founded the sociedad ib rica de autom viles de turismo s.i.a.t. . this led to spain s first mass production car maker seat . after the civil war hispano suiza in spain was severely affected by the devastated economy and the trade embargoes imposed by the allies . in 1946 hispano suiza sold off its spanish automotive assets to enasa the maker of pegaso trucks . 1950s today edit after the second world war the french arm of hispano suiza continued primarily as an aerospace firm . between 1945 and 1955 it was building the rolls royce nene under licence designing landing gear in 1950 and martin baker ejection seats in 1955 . the company s attention turned increasingly to turbine manufacturing and in 1968 it was taken over and became a division of snecma . in 1999 hispano suiza moved its turbine operations to a new factory in bezons outside paris using the original factories for power transmissions and accessory systems for jet engines . in 2005 snecma merged with sagem to form safran . the marque may be seeing a revival in the automotive sector with the showing of a model at the 2010 geneva motor show . 6 cars edit model year n of cylinders horsepower cv clarification needed engine displacement cc brakes gearbox maximum speed 10 hp 1904 6 10 14 16 hp 1904 6 from 14 to 16 armoured type birkigt 1905 4 20 87 km h 54 mph 20 30 hp 1906 from 20 to 24 100 km h 62 mph 40 hp 1906 40 100 km h 62 mph 60 75 hp 1907 6 from 60 to 75 12 15 hp 1907 from 12 to 15 20 30 hp 1908 4 from 20 to 30 24 30 hp 1908 4 from 24 to 30 30 40 hp 1908 4 from 30 to 40 alfonso xiii 1912 4 64 3620 drum brake in back wheels front wheels without brakes manual transmission 3 gears and reverse 121 km h 75 mph 15 20 hp 1909 4 from 15 to 20 20 30 hp 1909 4 from 20 to 30 t21 1913 14 from 15 to 30 t22 1913 14 from 18 to 60 t23 1913 14 from 30 to 90 t26 1914 15 20 t30 1915 24 16 32 hp 1916 32 h6b 1919 29 6 135 6600 4 wheel drum brakes with hispano suiza power assisted brakes manual transmission 3 gears and reverse 137 km h 85 mph t48 1924 4 90 3746 t49 1924 36 t64 1929 33 t60 t60 rl t60 1932 43 h6c 1924 29 6 160 8000 4 wheel drum brakes