Albert Marie Louis Delagarde (1898–1990) was an engineer and automotive designer known primarily for his work with French carmaker Panhard & Levassor.
Delagarde's early education included time at Bossuet, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, and Collège Stanislas de Paris.
[4] Delagarde enlisted in the French army in April 1917, and was sent to the front in June 1918 in an artillery corps of Renault FT tanks, where he commanded a section.
[2] During quiet times he studied for entry to the École Centrale Paris, often while astride the barrel of his tank's gun.
[5] His chief contributions were the adoption of a nozzle developed by partner Jean Gohin and the addition of a filter of his own design.
Delagarde also did design work on various Panhard military vehicles, beginning with the 1928 AMD (Auto-Mitrailleuse de Découverte - Machine-gun reconnaissance) 165.
He designed an armoured shell chassis for the car, and angled the exterior plating to deflect incoming fire.
[7] The low, centrally-mounted engine allowed enough space in the body to accommodate a driver both in front and in back, enabling the vehicle to drive forwards or backwards indifferently, as well as two turret operators.
It was here that Delagarde first drew a 350 cc (21.4 cu in) air-cooled flat-twin engine for a new small front-wheel drive car conceived by Jean Panhard and designed by Louis Bionier.
[6] When Panhard discovered that it had been excluded from the Pons Plan and would not have access to the steel needed to resume post-war production, they licensed a car designed by J.A.