Chief Designer At Tatra
Ledwinka returned to Tatra company (originally Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau) in Kopřivnice (Nesselsdorf), then in Czechoslovakia, now in Czech Republic, and between 1921 and 1937 he was their chief design engineer. He invented the frameless central tubular chassis (so-called "backbone chassis") with swing axles, fully independent suspension and rear-mounted air-cooled flat engine. Another of Ledwinka's major contributions to automobile design was the development of the streamlined car body. Under him, Tatra brought to market the first streamlined cars that had been mass produced. Together with his son Erich, who took over as chief designer at Tatra, Ledwinka and Erich Übelacker, a German engineer also employed by Tatra, designed the streamlined Tatra models T77, T77a, T87, and T97. All of these models had rear mounted, air-cooled engines.
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