Paul Jaray

Life

Paul Jaray was born in Vienna to a family of Hungarian-Jewish heritage. His family, originally named Jeitteles, was one of the oldest Jewish families of scholars and artists from Prague, and later relocated to the Hungarian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at the Maschinenbauschule in Vienna and later served as an assistant to Professor Rudolf Dörfl at the Prague Technical University. Jaray then became the chief design engineer at Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen, where he worked on seaplanes. In 1914, he joined Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in the same town, focusing on streamlining airships. He designed the LZ 120 Bodensee, which became the basis for later airships including the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, LZ 129 Hindenburg, and LZ-130. Wind tunnel experiments at Zeppelin led him to develop streamlining principles for automobiles. In 1922, he created his first streamlined car, the Ley T6. The following year, he founded the Stromlinien Karosserie Gesellschaft in Switzerland, where he had moved permanently in 1923, opening an office in Brunnen. His firm produced streamlined body designs for many manufacturers, such as Audi, Apollo, Dixi, Adler, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Jawa, Ford, and Steyr. Most of these remained prototypes. Tatra was the only company to put his principles into series production, with the Tatra T77. In 1934, Jaray also designed the body for the streamlined Auto Union Typ B Lucca Rennlimousine. He had interests in radio and television technology. In 1941, he worked on nosewheel undercarriage design for Farner AG in Grenchen. By 1944, he was working independently on a wind-driven power station.