Birkigt’s solution to building aero engines was ahead of its time. His chief engineer during this period was another Swiss, Louis Massuger. With the start of World War I, Hispano-Suiza turned to the design and production of aircraft engines under the direction of Marc Birkigt. Production was moved to larger factories at Bois-Colombes, under the name Hispano-Suiza in 1914.ġ911 Hispano Suiza King Alfonso XIII Double Berlineġ918 Antoni Bellet Hispano Suiza 15-20 World War I In 1911, an assembly factory called Hispano France began operating in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. Other factories in Spain were at Ripoll and Guadalajara.įrance was soon proving to be a larger market for Hispano’s luxury cars than Spain. 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. 3.8-litre and 7.4-litre four-cylinder and a pair of big six-cylinder engines were produced. Four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half. Yet another restructuring took place in 1904, creating La Hispano-Suiza Fábrica de Automóviles, under Castro’s direction, also based in Barcelona. Castro and became Fábrica Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles ( Spanish-Swiss Automobile Factory) but this company went bankrupt in December 1903. At some point in 1902, the ownership changed hands to J. La Cuadra built their first gasoline-powered engines from a Birkigt design. In Paris, De la Cuadra met the Swiss engineer Marc Birkigt (1878–1953) and hired him to work for the company in Spain. In 1898 a Spanish artillery captain, Emilio de la Cuadra, started electric automobile production in Barcelona under the name of La Cuadra. They designed the first 4 cylinder 16 valve engine and the car considered to have been the very first real sports car in history, the Hispano Suiza 45 Cr.

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. In 1923 its French subsidiary became a semi-autonomous partnership with the parent company. 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.

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