Otto Kauba (1908–1962) was an Austrian engineer who designed aircraft in the period during and after World War II. He also designed motor scooters in the postwar period.

Early life

Otto Kauba was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 11 September 1908.

Career

On the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Kauba was selling luxury cars and had become friends with ''

Reichsmarschall (; ) was an honorary military rank, specially created for Hermann Göring during World War II, and the highest rank in the . It was senior to the rank of (, equivalent to field marshal, which was previously the highest rank in the ), but ...

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...

, head of the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

Škoda-Kauba

He developed a novel idea for a flying bomb and used his personal friendship with Göring to obtain a joint collaboration with the

Škoda Works The Škoda Works (, ) was one of the largest European industrial conglomerates of the 20th century. In 1859, Czech engineer Emil Škoda bought a foundry and machine factory in Plzeň, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary that had been established ten ye ...

in order to develop his ideas. The Škoda-Kauba Flugzeugbau was opened in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in 1942.Saffek & Plocek (1992). Although the flying bomb project failed, Kauba went on to produce a number of innovative aircraft and the company built several prototypes, including the SL6 to test the control system for the proposed tailless

Blohm & Voss P 208 The Blohm & Voss P.208 was a design project for a tailless swept-wing propeller-powered interceptor designed by the German company Blohm & Voss towards the end of the Second World War. It was the first of several such "arrow-wing" designs, the l ...

. The SK 257 fighter-trainer incorporated a novel tapered tubular steel wing spar which doubled as an armoured fuel tank. It entered limited production before being cancelled. A later collaboration with

Eugen Sänger Eugen Sänger (22 September 1905 – 10 February 1964) was an Austrian aerospace engineer best known for his contributions to lifting body and ramjet technology. Early career Sänger was born in the former mining town of Preßnitz (Příse� ...

produced the P14 design for a

ramjet A ramjet is a form of airbreathing jet engine that requires forward motion of the engine to provide air for combustion. Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around and can operate up to . Ramjets can be particularly appropriat ...

powered fighter. The company ceased to exist when Prague was liberated at the end of the war in 1945.Titz & Zazvonil (1965).

Motor scooters

After the war Kauba returned to his native Austria. From 1949 he designed a new range of

motor scooter A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame, a seat, a transmission that shifts without the operator having to operate a clutch lever, a platform for their feet, and with a method of operation that emph ...

s and

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. Historically, the term exclusively meant a similar vehicle with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle eng ...

s for Lohner. The scooter range included popular models such as the ''Sissy'', L125 and L98, but sales eventually fell due to the increasing popularity of the

motor car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one bil ...

. The company received the distinction ''k.u.k. Hofwagenlieferant'' ("Royal

carriagemaker A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, motor coaches, and railway carriages. The word ...

s"). Financed by Hans H. Kosteletzky, he then started the Kosty company and in 1952 launched the Kosty 100 scooter, powered by a

Rotax Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Prod ...

two-stroke engine A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a f ...

. The motor was set inside a cage and the drive chain tension was set by sliding the whole engine back and forth. However sales were poor, it has been suggested because the price was too high, and the company closed the next year. He next formed a company in Vienna under his own name and began building the Lux, developed from the Kosty using Rotax 98cc and 125cc engines. Some 400 units in total were produced between 1953 and 1956. He was supported in this by Ragnar Mathéy of the Megu company, which had also been involved with both Lohner and Kosty. The Lux 98 was developed into the Bobby.

OFW

Kauba now turned back to aircraft. He designed the OK-15 two-seat light aircraft for the Österreichische Flugzeugwerke GmbH (OFW) at

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; Lower_Austria.html" ;"title=".e. Lower Austria">.e. Lower Austria , ) is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administr ...

. In 1956 it became the first aircraft to be designed and built in Austria for twenty years."Did You Know...?", ''Air Pictorial'', Vol. XVIII, No. 8, August 1956, p.285.Gunston, Bill; ''World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers'', 2nd ed, Sutton (2005), p.345.

Death

He died in Vienna on 8 March 1962.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Saffek, Otta and Plocek, Pierre; "Les Étranges Créations d'Otto Kauba", ''Le Fana de l'Aviation'', No.272, July 1992, pp. 14–22. (in French) *Titz, Zdenek and Zazvonil, Jaroslav; "Kauba's Dwarfs", ''Flying Review International'', November 1965, pp. 169–172. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kauba, Otto 1908 births 1962 deaths Aircraft designers Motor scooters Austrian aerospace engineers