The Hispano Suiza E-30, later renamed Hispano E-30, was designed in Spain in 1930 as a multi-purpose intermediate trainer. It was a single engine, parasol wing monoplane. About 25 served with the Spanish armed forces until 1945. Design and development Before 1930, Hispano-Suiza had built aircraft designed elsewhere and from 1928 had produced metal framed Nieuport-Delage 52 fighters for the Aviación Militar. This contract encouraged them to design an intermediate military trainer to prepare Spanish pilots for the Nieuport and also to provide advanced training for blind flying, gunnery, bombing, photo-reconnaissance and wireless operation. It was also to be suitable for liaison duties. The resulting aircraft was called the E-30, where E stood for Escuela (in English, training) and the 30 was from the design year of 1930. It was a single engine, parasol wing monoplane, seating two in tandem. The wing of the E-30 was straight edged and of constant chord, with rounded wing tips and a large, rounded cut-out in the trailing edge above the fuselage to improve visibility from the rear cockpit. It was fabric covered over a wooden structure, with Spanish pine box spars and ribs. Its centre section contained an integral fuel tank and was mounted on the fuselage with three duraluminum cabane struts on each side to the fuselage top and sides. Each wing was braced with a pair of lift struts from the fuselage bottom to about mid-span. The wings could be easily folded. The fuselage was in three sections. Behind the engine compartment there was a simple duraluminum section containing the open, tandem cockpits, the forward one being below mid-chord. The rear fuselage was a fabric covered tube steel structure, with the wood and fabric in-flight adjustable strut braced tailplane mounted on top. The fin, of similar construction, was broad and round edged, carrying the rudder which extended between the elevators to the fuselage bottom. Production machines had a new, triangular fin. The undercarriage was fixed and wide track (2.60 m or 8 ft 6 in), with near vertical main legs mounted on the forward lift struts. The tops of the legs were further braced to the upper fuselage. Split axles were fixed at the bottoms of the forward lift struts; single wheels were fitted with balloon tyres and had differential brakes for ground steering. The first prototype had a steerable tailskid, replaced by a tailwheel in later aircraft. The first prototype,