Reflections on a Spanish Swiss Stork Mascot
Iconic mascot on a 1929 Hispano Suiza Dual Cowl Phaeton. The story behind the mascot shape is wonderful. The stork is the official symbol of Alsace-Lorraine the small region that has been German or French depending who won the previous war.
The flying stork (La Cigogne Volante, for you Francophiles) radiator cap was a quiet reminder of the marque’s wartime prowess: it commemorated Group de Combat No. 12, the squadron of Georges Guynemer, a French air ace with 53 credited kills before his disappearance in September, 1917. Guynemer’s SPAD aircraft were Hispano-powered and -armed, and Guynemer was said to be a personal friend of Birkigt.
The company received permission from Guynemer's mother to use the symbol from his plane as the official mascot.
Marc Birkigt was a Swiss engineer who designed the car and engines for a Spanish car company in early 1902, and as the company became more successful, they realized that many more expensive ultra-luxury cars could be sold in France, so the main car manufacturing plant was moved there. Thus, the French "Rolls" was made by a Spanish firm and designed by a Swiss......
Of note was Birkigt’s famed watercooled monobloc SOHC aluminum V8 engine with integral heads and screw-in cylinder liners. By the end of the war this engine had been manufactured in no fewer than 21 plants–fourteen in France alone, and others in England, Italy and the US; more than 50,000 were built, and the Hispano-Suiza name was soon legend across Europe. (It was so successful that the French government later sued the company for war profiteering.)
Reflections on a Spanish Swiss Stork Mascot
Iconic mascot on a 1929 Hispano Suiza Dual Cowl Phaeton. The story behind the mascot shape is wonderful. The stork is the official symbol of Alsace-Lorraine the small region that has been German or French depending who won the previous war.
The flying stork (La Cigogne Volante, for you Francophiles) radiator cap was a quiet reminder of the marque’s wartime prowess: it commemorated Group de Combat No. 12, the squadron of Georges Guynemer, a French air ace with 53 credited kills before his disappearance in September, 1917. Guynemer’s SPAD aircraft were Hispano-powered and -armed, and Guynemer was said to be a personal friend of Birkigt.
The company received permission from Guynemer's mother to use the symbol from his plane as the official mascot.
Marc Birkigt was a Swiss engineer who designed the car and engines for a Spanish car company in early 1902, and as the company became more successful, they realized that many more expensive ultra-luxury cars could be sold in France, so the main car manufacturing plant was moved there. Thus, the French "Rolls" was made by a Spanish firm and designed by a Swiss......
Of note was Birkigt’s famed watercooled monobloc SOHC aluminum V8 engine with integral heads and screw-in cylinder liners. By the end of the war this engine had been manufactured in no fewer than 21 plants–fourteen in France alone, and others in England, Italy and the US; more than 50,000 were built, and the Hispano-Suiza name was soon legend across Europe. (It was so successful that the French government later sued the company for war profiteering.)