Hans Ledwinka
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Hans Ledwinka
Hans Ledwinka (14 February 1878 – 2 March 1967) was an Austrian automobile designer. Youth Ledwinka was born in Klosterneuburg (Lower Austria), near Vienna, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He started his career as a mechanic, and later studied in Vienna. As a young man he worked for Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau in Nesselsdorf, the company that later became Tatra in Moravia. He was first employed in the construction of railroad cars, and later involved in the production of the first cars made by this firm. He designed the 5.3-litre, six-cylinder Type U motor car. In the midst of World War I in May 1916 he accepted directorship at Steyr, initially working at home and moving there permanently in 1917. Chief designer at Tatra Ledwinka returned to Tatra company (originally Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau) in Kopřivnice (Nesselsdorf), then in Czechoslovakia, and between 1921 and 1937 he was their chief design engineer. He invented the frameless central tubular chassis (so-calle ...
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Austro-Hungarians
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after its defeat in the First World War. Austria-Hungary was ruled by the House of Habsburg and constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of the Habsburg monarchy. It was a multinational state and one of Europe's major powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire). The Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry in the world, after the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. Austria-Hungary also became the world's third-largest manufacturer and exporter of electric home appliances, electr ...
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Tatra Cars
Tatra is a Czech vehicle manufacturer from Kopřivnice. It is owned by the ''Tatra Trucks'' company, and it is the third oldest company in the world producing cars with an unbroken history. The company was founded in 1850 as ''Ignatz Schustala & Cie'', in 1890 renamed in German ''Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft'' when it became a wagon and carriage manufacturer. In 1897, Tatra produced the first motor car in central Europe, the Präsident automobile. In 1918, it changed its name to ''Kopřivnická vozovka a.s.'', and in 1919 it changed from the Nesselsdorfer marque to the ''Tatra'' badge, named after the nearby Tatra Mountains on the Czechoslovak- Polish border (now on the Polish- Slovak border). During World War II Tatra was instrumental in the production of trucks and tank engines for the German war effort. Production of passenger cars ceased in 1999, but the company still produces a range of primarily all-wheel-drive trucks, from 4×4 to 18×18. The brand is als ...
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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the Chancellor of Germany, chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934. During his dictatorship, he initiated European theatre of World War II, World War II in Europe by invasion of Poland, invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of Holocaust victims, about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his Military career of Adolf Hitler, service in the German Army in Worl ...
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Tatra T97
The Tatra 97 (T97) is a Czechoslovak mid-size car built by Tatra in Kopřivnice, Moravia from 1936 to 1939. History The Tatra 97 was designed to complement two full-size cars in the Tatra range: the Tatra 77 launched in 1934 and the Tatra 87 launched in 1936 along with the Type 97. Each of the three models has an air-cooled rear engine and share similar aerodynamic fastback four-door sedan bodies. But whereas types 77 and 87 each have a large V8 engine, Type 97 has a flat-four engine. The Type 97 is distinguished by having two headlights and a one-piece windscreen, whereas the 77 and 87 have three headlights and a three-piece windscreen. The Type 97's flat-four engine displaces 1,759 cc and produces , giving it top speed of . Tatra already had a mid-size car in the same class, the more conventional 1,688 cc Tatra 75 that it had launched in 1933. Tatra continued to produce the Type 75 alongside the futuristic Type 97. In fact production of the Type 75 outlived that of the Typ ...
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Erich Übelacker
Erich Übelacker (19 October 1899 – 30 June 1977) was a German automobile engineer. Übelacker studied mechanical engineering at Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague Technical University and subsequently worked there as an assistant to Professor Rudolf Dörfl. During 1927–39 he worked at Tatra (company), Tatra Works in Kopřivnice in Moravia under the leadership of Hans Ledwinka. Together with Ledwinka's son Erich Ledwinka, Übelacker developed the Tatra 57, Tatra type 57 and designed the first Tatra aerodynamic cars with air-cooled rear engines Tatra T77, T77, Tatra T77#Tatra 77a, T77a, Tatra T87, T87 and Tatra T97, T97. During 1939–41 he worked for Austrian automobile factory Steyr-Daimler-Puch, Steyr, subsequently moving to Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart constructing turbine engines there between 1941 and 1945. As a captured soldier he continued the work on turbine engines at Turbomeca in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Pau, France. From 1949 to 1961 he was employed as ...
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Flat Engine
A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, whereby each cylinder has two pistons sharing a central combustion chamber. The most common configuration of flat engines is the boxer engine configuration, in which the pistons of each opposed pair of cylinders move inwards and outwards at the same time. The other configuration is effectively a V engine with a 180-degree angle between the cylinder banks; in this configuration each pair of cylinders shares a single crankpin, so that as one piston moves inward, the other moves outward. The first flat engine was built in 1897 by Karl Benz. Flat engines have been used in aviation, motorcycle and automobile applications. They are now less common in cars than straight engines (for engines with less than six cylinders) and V engines (for engi ...
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Air-cooled
Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat generated (around 44%) escapes through the exhaust, not through the metal fins of an air-cooled engine (12%). About 8% of the heat energy is transferred to the oil, which although primarily meant for lubrication, also plays a role in heat dissipation via a cooler. ''Air-cooled engines'' are used generally in applications which would not suit liquid cooling, as such modern air-cooled engines are used in motorcycles, general aviation aircraft, lawn mowers, generators, outboard motors, pump sets, saw benches and auxiliary power units. Introduction Most modern internal combustion engines are cooled by a closed circuit carrying liquid coolant through channels in the engine block and cylinder head, where the coolant absorbs heat, to a heat ...
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Rear-engine Design
In automobile design, a rear-engine design layout places the engine at the rear of the vehicle. The center of gravity of the engine itself is behind the rear axle. This is not to be confused with the center of gravity of the whole vehicle, as an imbalance of such proportions would make it impossible to keep the front wheels on the ground. Rear-engined vehicles almost always have a rear-wheel drive car layout, but some are four wheel drive. This layout has the following features: *Packaging: since there is no need for a transmission tunnel, the floor can be flat. *Rear traction: having the engine located over the driven wheels increases downward pressure, which is helpful for grip on loose surfaces, although can be prone to oversteer. *Simplicity of manufacture: the engine is near the driven wheels, and the transmission can be merged with the differential to save space. This layout was once popular in small, inexpensive cars and light commercial vehicles. Today most car makers have ...
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Independent Suspension
Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked. "Independent" refers to the motion or path of movement of the wheels or suspension. It is common for the left and right sides of the suspension to be connected with anti-roll bars or other such mechanisms. The anti-roll bar ties the left and right suspension spring rates together but does not tie their motion together. Most modern vehicles have independent front suspension (IFS). Many vehicles also have an independent rear suspension (IRS). IRS, as the name implies, has the rear wheels independently sprung. A fully independent suspension has an independent suspension on all wheels. Some early independent systems used swing axles, but modern systems use Chapman or MacPherson struts, trailing arms, multilink, or ...
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Swing Axle
A swing axle is a simple type of independent (rear wheel) suspension designed and patented by Edmund Rumpler in 1903. This was a revolutionary invention in automotive suspension, allowing driven (powered) wheels to follow uneven road surfaces independently, thus enabling the vehicle's wheels to maintain better road contact and holding; plus each wheel's reduced unsprung weight means their movements have less impact on the vehicle as a whole. The first automotive application was the Rumpler Tropfenwagen, later followed by the Mercedes 130H/150H/170H, the Standard Superior, the Volkswagen Beetle and its derivatives, the Chevrolet Corvair, and the roll-over prone M151 jeep amongst others. Some later automobile rear swing axles have universal joints connecting the driveshafts to the differential, which is attached to the chassis. Swing axles do not have universal joints at the wheels — the wheels are always perpendicular to the driveshafts; the design is therefore not suitable ...
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Backbone Chassis
Backbone tube chassis is a type of automobile construction chassis that is similar to the body-on-frame design. Instead of a two-dimensional ladder-type structure, it consists of a strong tubular backbone (usually rectangular in cross section) that connects the front and rear suspension attachment areas. A body is then placed on this structure. It was first used in the English Rover 8hp of 1904 and then the French Simplicia automobile in 1909. The backbone chassis was extensively developed by Hans Ledwinka who used it in greater numbers on the Tatra 11 and subsequent vehicles. Ledwinka later used backbone frame with central tube and axles with swinging driveshafts on Tatra trucks, became known as ''Tatra-concept''. Design The truck backbone chassis is a design feature of Czech Tatra heavy trucks (cross-country, military etc.). Hans Ledwinka used this style of chassis for the Tatra 11 car in 1923. He then developed the design on trucks with 6x4 model Tatra 26, which had ex ...
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