Hispano-Suiza
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Hispano-Suiza is a Spanish 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 SAFRAN 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), but this company also went bankrupt in December 1903.
Yet another reformation took place in 1904, creating Fábrica La Hispano-Suiza de Automóviles, also under Castro's direction. Four new engines were introduced in the next year and a half. A 3.8L and a 7.4L four cylinder engine were produced as well as a pair of big six cylinder powerplants. This version of the company managed to avoid bankruptcy, and remained in operation 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, known as Hispano France, was set up in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret'. In 1914 they moved to larger factories at Bois-Colombes, and took the name Hispano-Suiza.
With the start of World War I the company turned to the creation of aircraft engines under the direction of Marc Birkigt. His solution to building aero engines was unique, instead of machining separate steel cylinders and then screwing them to a crankcase, he used cast aluminum blocks into which thin steel liners were screwed. This made the engine overall much stiffer, easier to build, and lighter. His design was the first of what are today known as "cast block" engines, and also sported overhead cams, propeller reduction gearing, and a host of other features that didn't appear on most other engines until the late 1920s. 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.
