Gunnar Ljungström

Gunnar Ljungström (1905 to 1999) was a Swedish engineer and technical designer who specialised in aerodynamics and the automobile industry and helped pioneer the early history of the Swedish car brand Saab. He was born in 1905, the son of the industrialist Fredrik Ljungström, and studied mechanics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where he became president of the student union while its new student centre, Nymble, was built in 1930. He also won an academic gold medal in pole vault and introduced water skiing to Sweden in 1929. After graduating as an engineer in 1932 he took part in the family's steam turbine projects and in work on car transmissions. In 1936 he returned to Sweden to help its aviation industry, and at Saab he contributed to aerodynamics and engines during the war. After the war he headed the development team for Saab Automobile's first cars, from the Ursaab of 1949 to the Saab 99 shown to the public in 1967. He was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the first non-American honorary member of SAE International.