Jean Lignel's early designs with SFCA were developments of André Maillet's 1933 low wing Maillet-Nening MN-A.

[1] It was derived from the design of the SFCA Lignel 10 single seat fighter trainer,[2] which did not fly until February 1938.

In the nose a 160 kW (220 hp) Renault 6Q-03,[5] an air-cooled, inverted six cylinder inline engine[1] supercharged to 2,000 m (6,600 ft)[2] was mounted on steel tube bearings.

[1] The Lignel 20 had retractable landing gear with mainwheeels on forked cantilever legs from the outer edges of the centre section, swinging outwards into wing recesses.

After Caudron, the only other manufacturer with entries, pulled out, SFCA decided a competition with only a single aircraft in it was pointless and the Coupe Deutsch was cancelled for that year.