page_title: Hispano-Suiza
section_title: 1918–1936
hierarchical_section_title: Hispano-Suiza / History / 1918–1936
caption_attribution_description: English: A Hispano-Suiza hood ornament (stork), from the 1920's or early 1930's.
context_page_description: Hispano-Suiza is a Spanish automotive–engineering company and, after World War I, a French aviation engine and components manufacturer. It is best known for its pre-World War II luxury cars and aviation engines. 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 and Peralada Group.
context_section_description: 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 aluminium World War I aircraft engines and had coachwork done by well known coachbuilders like Hibbard & Darrin and D'Ieteren.
  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 Société Française 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 but overall direction remained at Barcelona. This arrangement increased the importance of the Bois-Colombes plant near Paris as Hispano-Suiza's premier luxury car plant, and while the Spanish operations continued to produce luxury cars, mostly the smaller, less expensive models, production in Spain moved increasingly to the production of 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 Bois-Colombes works.
  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.
  The Hispano-Suiza T49 was also designed and made by the Spanish company between 1924 and 1944; it was the Spanish version of the French H6B model with a 6-cylinder engine of 8,000 cm3, 160 hp and a maximum speed of 177 km / h.
  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 Fábrica de Automóviles (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.
caption: Hispano-Suiza stork hood ornament.
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