Winging it



    Hino Motors had its beginnings in Tokyo Gas and Electric, which produced its first vehicle, the "A-Type" truck, in 1917. Hino emerged as a separate company in 1942 to make military vehicles, and after the Second World War turned its focus to diesel engines, trucks and buses.

     Today controlled by Toyota, Hino is Japan's largest truck-builder. But it has also at times produced cars, including Renault 4CVs built under licence in the 1950s and its own sweet-looking Contessa in 1961.
    It has used many versions of its winged logo through the years, as can be seen from these images from Hino's website. Sadly, the wings now are history, replaced by an unremarkable stylized H that appears patterned on Toyota's oval emblem.


   I'm guessing that the huge Hino wings so proudly displayed on many Cuban trucks today arrived in the 1970s and '80s on buses imported by the island for intercity routes. Adrián León Aja has posted a remarkable collection of photos of those buses on Flickr.

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