Hispano-Suiza
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Hispano-Suiza is a French engineering firm best known for their engine and weapon designs in the pre-World War II period, work that developed out of their earliest work in luxury automobile design. Today they are part of the SNECMA Group.
In 1898 a Spanish artillery captain, Emilio de la Cuadra, started with electric automobile production in Barcelona under the name of La Cuadra. In Paris, De la Cuadra met the talented Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt (lived 1878 -1953), and hired him to work for the company in Spain. La Cuadra built their first gas powered engines from Birkigt designs. At some point in 1902 the ownership changed hands to J. Castro and became Fábrica Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles (Spanish-Swiss Car Factory) in 1902 under the ownership of J. Castro, but this company also went bankrupt in December 1903.
Yet another reforming took place in 1904, creating Fábrica La Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles under Castro's direction. Four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half. A 3.8L, a 7.4L four were produced as well as a pair of big six cylinder powerplants. This version of the company managed to avoid bankruptcy, and remained open until 1938. They produced a number of hand-built luxury cars, many of which ended up being owned by King Alfonso XIII of Spain.
However by this point in the early years of the century, France was proving to be a much larger market for their luxury cars than Spain. In 1911 a new factory was set up in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret as Hispano France. In 1914 they moved to larger factories at Bois-Colombes, and took the name Hispano-Suiza.
With the start of World War I they turned to the creation of aircraft engines, but had problems because their designs spun too fast for propellers of the era, leading them to introduce the first reduction gearing used on aircraft. Their resulting design was widely used on many French, English and US designs during the war. Another major design effort was the use of a hollow propeller shaft to allow a gun to be fired through the propeller spinner, thereby avoiding the need for a synchronizer gear. This design would be a feature of all future Hispano-Suiza military engines.
The mascot statuette atop the radiator used by this firm after WWI was the stork of the province of Alsace, taken from the squadron emblem painted on the side of the aircraft of the renowned WWI French ace (and Hispano-Suiza customer) Georges Guynemer, which was powered by an Hispano-Suiza engine. At the time this was an emblem of revanchism.
After the war they returned to automobile engine design, and in 1919 introduced their first famous car, the H6, earning them a reputation similar to that of Rolls-Royce in England. Through the 20's and into the 30's they built a series of luxury cars of increasing refinement.
In 1936 with another war clearly looming, Hispano-Suiza was told to stop production of cars and turn solely to aircraft engines once again. At the time they had just introduced a new series of water-cooled V-12 engines, and the Hispano-Suiza 12Y was in huge demand for practically every French aircraft. However Hispano was never able to deliver enough of these engines, and many French fighters sat on the ground, complete but for the engine.
Another development of the era was a series of 20mm autocannon, first the Hispano-Suiza HS.9 and then the more famous Hispano-Suiza HS.404, arguably the best of the wartime aircraft cannon. The 404 was licensed for production in England 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 weapons.
After the war Hispano-Suiza was primarily an aviation firm. Between 1945 and 1955 they built the Rolls-Royce Nene under license, began designing landing gear in 1950, and Martin-Baker ejection seats in 1955. Their attention turned increasingly to turbine manufacturing, and in 1968 they became a division of SNECMA. In 1999 they moved their turbine operations to a new factory in Bezons, using the original factories for power transmissions and accessory systems for jet engines.
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External links
- Hispano-Suiza (http://www.hispano-suiza-sa.com)de:Hispano-Suiza