Hans Ledwinka

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Hans Ledwinka (born in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria),1878, died in Munich (Germany),1967) was an Austrian automobile designer. As a young man, Ledwinka worked for Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau where he designed the 5.3-litre six-cylinder Type U motor car. In 1917, in the midst of World War I, he left the company to join Steyr.

Between 1921 and 1945, he was the chief design engineer at the Tatra company in Kopřivnice, Czech Republic (originally Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau). Here, Ledwinka invented the frameless central tubular chassis (so-called "backbone chassis") with swing axles, fully independent suspension and rear-mounted air-cooled flat engine. His son Erich designed the Steyr-Daimler-Puch Haflinger continued by the larger Pinzgauer High Mobility All-Terrain Vehicle, both on tubular chassis and swing portal axle.

Other major contribution of Ledwinka to automobile design is the development of car body streamling and its introduction into mass production. Together with Erich Ubelacker Ledwinka designed the Tatra streamlined models Tatra 77, 87, 97, all with rear air-cooled engines.

Ledwinka's concept was copied by Ferdinand Porsche, whose successors later had to acknowledge the influence of Ledwinka's Tatra models on the Porsche-designed Kdf-Wagen of 1938 (later known as the VW Beetle), a post-war lawsuit resulting in a DM3,000,000 settlement paid by Volkswagen to Ringhoffer-Tatra.

After the Second World War Ledwinka was unjustly accused of collaboration with the German occupation forces and jailed for five years in Czechoslovakia by the Soviet installed Stalinist government. After his release in 1951 he retired to live in Munich, Germany. In 1992, after the fall of Communism, Ledwinka was fully rehabilitated by the Czech authorities.

In 2007 Hans Ledwinka was included in the European Automotive Hall of Fame.