Joseph Ledwinka

Who was Joseph Ledwinka?

Joseph Ledwinka was an automobile engineer.

Ledwinka, a distant relative of Hans Ledwinka, was born in Vienna, and emigrated to the United States in 1896 and was employed in his first job as carriage trimmer at the Chicago Coach and Carriage Company where he developed his first patented design for a four-wheel-drive electric vehicle with four-wheel brakes, several of which were built by Westinghouse. Later he became a chief engineer for the Chattanooga Railroad of Tennessee, where he designed special drives for electric trolley cars. Coming to Philadelphia he started working with Edward Gowen Budd for the Hale & Kilburn company where they pioneered the pressed-steel car body panelling manufacturing process starting in 1909. In 1912, they established their own factory, the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Co. later Ambi Budd in Philadelphia where they formed automobile panels by drop pressing and power hammering later followed by drawing and stretching of panels. They supplied body parts to Dodge. In 1923, André Citroën took up the Budd licence for his all-steel B12 model. In 1929, Ledwinka designed the front-wheel drive Ruxton car. In the 1930s Ledwinka was involved in the design of Chrysler Airflow body and worked with Ferdinand Porsche on the early VW prototypes. Ledwinka was an author of over 300 technical patents relating to automobile design.