Edmund Rumpler

Born in Vienna, then Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Austria), he worked mainly in Germany. An automotive engineer by training, he collaborated with Hans Ledwinka on the first Tatra car (at that time called Nesselsdorfer-Wagenbau), the Präsident, in 1897.

By age 30, in 1902, he had quit Daimler to become technical director of Adler. He designed the first German engine to have engine and gearbox as a unit at Adler. The next year, he patented a swing axle rear suspension system (an idea later adopted by Ferdinand Porsche for the KdF Wagen and Porsche 356, as well as by Chevrolet for the Corvair).

The Wright brothers turned Rumpler's attention to aviation. He quit Adler in 1907, and in 1910, copying countryman Igo Etrich's Taube, Rumpler became the first ever aircraft manufacturer in Germany. In 1911, he took on Melli Beese as a student pilot and used her flying appearances in competitions as promotion for his aeroplanes.

Rumpler continued to be interested in automobiles, and after the First World War, he applied aircraft streamlining to a car, building the Tropfenwagen (German, "drop car") in Berlin. A production model proved a sensation at the 1921 Berlin Auto Show. Rumpler's efforts produced a car with an astoundingly low Cw of only 0.28 (when tested in 1979); the Fiat Balilla of the period, by contrast, was 0.60.