KAUBA | 1953-56 | Austria :

Otto Kauba was born in Vienna on 11 September 1908. On the outbreak of the Second World War he was selling luxury cars and had become friends with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe. 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-Kauba Flugzeugbau was opened in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1942. Although the flying bomb project failed, Kauba went on to produce a number of innovative aircraft prototypes. The company ceased to exist when Prague was liberated at the end of the war in 1945.

After the war Kauba returned to his native Austria. From 1949 he designed a new range of motor scooters and mopeds for Lohner. Richard Lohner and Kauba designed their first scooter together in 1949, which appeared as the L98 in 1950. By this time Kauba had left to join Kosty.

Financed by Hans H. Kosteletzky, Kauba started the Kosty company and in 1952 launched the Kosty 100 scooter, powered by a Rotax two-stroke engine. The motor was set inside a cage and the drive chain tension was set by sliding the whole engine back and forth. Sales were poor, it has been suggested because the price was too high, and the company closed the following year.

He next formed a company in Vienna under his own name and began building the Lux, developed from the Kosty design, using Rotax 98cc and 125cc engines. He was supported by Ragnar Mathéy of the Megu company, which had also been involved with both Lohner and Kosty. The Lux 98 used a Rotax 98cc engine with a top speed of 60 km/h, and approximately 390 units were produced. The Lux 2 125 used a Rotax 124cc engine, achieved a top speed of 80 km/h and featured full bodywork; only seven of these machines were produced. A further development of the Lux 98 was the Bobby. The machines were also known as the Kauba Lux. Some 400 units in total were produced between 1953 and 1956.

Kauba then turned back to aircraft, designing the OK-15 two-seat light aircraft for the Österreichische Flugzeugwerke GmbH at Wiener Neustadt. In 1956 it became the first aircraft to be designed and built in Austria for twenty years. Kauba died in Vienna on 8 March 1962.