GMD Mueller
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GMD Mueller Lifts AG was a Swiss aerial lift manufacturing firm.
GMD stands for Gerhard Mueller Dietlikon.
Founded in 1947 by engineer Gerhard Mueller, who is credited with the invention of the modern detachable chairlift in the late 1940s, it was one of the most prolific and respected aerial lift manufacurers in skiing history. The company was bought out by the management in 1985 after Muellers death and went out of business in 1992.
In the late 1920s, Gerhard Mueller, a mechanical engineering student, was a newcomer to growing sport of skiing. At the time, there were no user-friendly ski lifts in Switzerland.
At a resort hotel outside Zürich, Mueller created his first usable ski lift consisting of a 1’’ hemp rope and some old motorcycle parts. Naturally, being a ropetow, guests regularly complained about sore hands and torn clothes resulting from using the lift. Mueller, inspired by, Sami's practice of, whilst being towed on skis by reindeer, would loop the reins around their hips, allowing them to rest their hands, created the first modern T-bar.
During the 1960s and 1970s GMD Mueller installed more than hundred fixed-grip chairlifts in North America. Many of these lifts are still in service today. In Europe 4-seater gondola lifts with Mueller's patented detachable cable grips and T-bars were more popular. Some resorts, such as Whistler were at the time exclusively equipped with Mueller lifts.
GMD Mueller is also noted for inventing the Aerobus, a self-propelled bus-like vehicle riding on a suspended overhead cable.
