Hispano - Suiza Hispano - Suiza ( literally : " Spanish - Swiss " ) was a Spanish automotive and engineering firm , best known for its luxury cars and aviation engines in the pre - World War II period of the twentieth century . In 1923 its French subsidiary became a semi - autonomous partnership with the parent company . In 1968 , the French arm was taken over by the aerospace company Snecma , now a part of the French SAFRAN Group . The Spanish parent sold all its automotive assets to Enasa in 1946 . History . Early years . 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 Fábrica Hispano - Suiza de Automóviles ( " Spanish - Swiss Automobile Factory " ) but this company went bankrupt in December 1903 . Yet another restructuring took place in 1904 , creating La Hispano - Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles , under Castro ' s direction , also based in Barcelona . Four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half . 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 . France was soon proving to be a much larger market for their luxury cars than Spain . In 1911 , a factory , called Hispano France , was set up in the Paris suburb of Levallois - Perret . In 1914 , production was moved to larger factories at Bois - Colombes , under the name Hispano - Suiza . 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 . Birkigt ' s solution to building aero engines was ahead of its time . 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 was the use of a hollow propeller shaft to allow projectile firing through the ( reduction geared only ) propeller spinner , 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 . 1918 – 1936 . After World War I , Hispano - Suiza returned to automobile manufacturing and , in 1919 , introduced the 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 a body design by the American coach designers Hibbard & Darrin . 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 . 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 . In 1923 the French arm of Hispano - Suiza was incorporated as the Societé Française Hispano - Suiza , the Spanish parent company subscribing to 71 % of the share capital . The French subsidiary was granted a large degree of financial and project independence but the technical co - operation between the Spanish and French arms of the company was always closely maintained . Luxury car production was increasingly concentrated in France while the Spanish operations moved into the production of commercial vehicles . 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 , Fábrica de Automóviles S . A . ( 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 . A fictional example of a Hispano - Suiza appears in the P . G . Wodehouse " Blandings Castle " stories ; the family drove or rather were driven in a Hispano - Suiza ( H6 ) , rather than , say , a Rolls - Royce . Also in the Agatha Christie novel " The Seven Dials Mystery " the main character , Lady Eileen " Bundle " Brent , drives herself about in her " Hispano " . In Kerry Greenwood ' s detective series set in 1928 Melbourne , the main character Phryne Fisher has a large red open - top Hispano - Suiza . In Evelyn Waugh ' s Decline and Fall Margot Beste - Chetwynde has at least two , as her ' second best Hispano Suiza ' collects Paul Pennyfeather before his wedding . Spanish Civil War and World War II . In 1936 , the French arm of 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 . Meanwhile , the Republic of Spain conscripted Hispano - Suiza ' s Spanish operations into war production of trucks , armoured vehicles and weapons for the civil war of 1936 - 1939 . After the war , the company was severely affected by the devastated state of the Spanish economy and the trade embargoes imposed by the victorious allies . In 1946 , Hispano - Suiza sold off its automotive assets to ENASA , the maker of Pegaso trucks . 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 . 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 Ibérica de Automóviles de Turismo ' ( S . I . A . T . ) . This led to Spain ' s first mass - production car maker SEAT . 1950s – Today . After the Second World War the French arm of Hispano - Suiza continued primarily an aerospace firm . Between 1945 and 1955 , 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 . Models ( passenger cars ) . The models H6B ( 1919 – 29 ) , H6C ( 1924 – 29 ) , Hispano Suiza Junior or HS26 ( 1931 – 32 ) , J12 ( 1931 – 38 ) and K6 ( 1934 – 37 ) were made by the French division , the rest were all manufactured in Spain .