Julius Mackerle

Julius Mackerle (18 June 1909 Jevíčko, Moravia Austria-Hungary – 11 September 1988) was a Czechoslovakian inventor and automobile engineer.

His father, Julius, owned a brick works firm in Jevíčko and his brother Jaroslav Mackerle (1913-1964) was an architect, designer and amateur archeologist. Julius Mackerle was an inventor, automobile engineer and head designer of Tatra Kopřivnice, a specialist on air-cooled engines. He studied at the Technical University in Brno where he constructed his first motorcar – a two-seater sport roadster with 1,000cc JAP motorcycle engine. He finished his studies in 1935.

Initially he worked at Škoda Plzeň as a head of motor engine department and then he transferred to the Prague branch of Škoda Works. In 1948 he started to work for Tatra in Kopřivnice, where he designed engines for Tatra trucks T 128 and 138. In 1949 under his leadership an engine for a racing Tatraplan T607 and T607-2 with ejector cooling system was developed. In the early 1950s, Mackerle designed the concept for the Tatra T603 V8 engine.

In 1958 Mackerle worked as a director of engine design at Ústav pro výzkum motorových vozidel (Institute for Research and Development of Automobiles) where he designed an experimental car Rotoped. He lectured at Technical Universities in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. In 1962 in London he received the Herbert Akroyd Stuart Prize given by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

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