Ikarus (Hungarian company)
Ikarus is a bus manufacturer based in Budapest and Székesfehérvár, Hungary. It was established in 1895 as Imre Uhry's Blacksmith Workshop and Coach Factory and, during the Communist era in Hungary, it dominated bus markets of the entire Eastern Bloc and its allies.
History
Early history (1895–1932)
The company's direct predecessor was established in Budapest in 1895, when Imre Uhry opened his Blacksmith Workshop. The little company's main profile was to repair carts and horseshoes. However, Uhry constantly upgraded his workshop from the stable income he gained, and within a few years, the workshop started to produce its first carriages, drays and chariots. After a number of expansions, Uhry bought a new plant in 1913, and by the outbreak of World War I, they started to focus on building and repairing truck superstructures. When the war finally ended in 1918, the company was one of the most significant manufacturers. One reason is because the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and Uhry's company was one of the few not finding itself on the outer side of the new borders. The other is because the company was taking a significant part in the war production.In the early 1920s, another enlargement of the company was due to happen, which eventually resulted in a new name: Uhry Imre Car-body and Trailer Factory. Prior to the 1930s, the company was primarily producing various and unique superstructures on foreign companies' chassis, like Ford, Mercedes-Benz, FIAT, Büssing or Gräf & Stift. These included trucks, buses and even some passenger cars. The Uhry company was doing better as time went by. In 1929, the 1,000th truck superstructure was produced. Although, at this time, the company did not have any export products, from time to time, some models caught international spotlight. For example, in 1934, the company's luxury autobus built on a Gräf & Stift chassis was presented on the French Concours d'Élégance car beauty contest.
The company's three most important customers were the Hungarian State companies Hungarian State Railways, the Hungarian State Railways Auto Transportation Company and one of the predecessors of Budapest Transportation Company. These companies were constantly ordering from Uhry's factory, up until the Great Depression hit Hungary in 1930. The crisis suddenly cut most of the orders, production was almost stopped. The situation forced Uhry to sell the vehicles below their real value and to take loans. Eventually, by 1932, the situation led to the bankruptcy of Uhry Imre Car body and Trailer Factory.
From reorganisation to the Communist Era (1933–1948)
In 1933, the children of Imre Uhry established a new company on the ruins of the old, which was called Uhri Siblings Car-body and Vehicle Factory. The children were using their family name with the letter "i" instead of "y". The new company's first three years went by steadily, without any major success, but in 1936, the BSzKRt, the company then responsible for Budapest's public transportation, ordered 50 diesel buses on MÁVAG–Mercedes chassis. These vehicles were still produced with wooden body, but the factory did hire new engineers, who started to work on a metal body variant, which was to be mass-produced.During this period of the company, it was not customary to actually name their products. When we are referring to each type, it usually has to be done by the chassis it was built on and the year of production.
The first metal-body autobus in Hungary was the Uhri Siblings' MÁVAG N26/36, which was followed by a successor with some modifications every year. Four models were mass-produced, primarily for Budapest: the standard MÁVAG N26/39 and N26/40, as well as the "hill" version N2h/39 and N2h/40. These four were nicknamed Catfish due to their unique front decoration. A total number of 184 units were produced of them.
In 1942, the company, which employed almost a thousand people, started to produce aircraft. The site on Margit Street, founded at that time, was one of the bastions of domestic vehicle production until the turn of the Millennium.
In 1948, like many other enterprises in the newly-established Second Hungarian Republic at the time, the company was nationalised and thus became property of the state, which was followed by the Uhri-family's departure from Hungary.
Golden age – the Communist era (1948–1989)
Prelude to the Ikarus models
In 1948, the old customer, the BSzKRt ordered a new line of buses for its fleet and for this request the — now state-owned — company developed a brand new model, the 'Tr 5. It was 9.5 metres in length and was built on a MÁVAG LO 5000 type chassis.In 1949, new changes were implemented by the communist government. The Uhri Siblings Car-body and Vehicle Factory was merged with:
- the Airplane Factory
- the Ikarus Machine- and Metal Products Company
However, the company's products still did not bear the name Ikarus until 1951, although the winged logo started to appear even on the Tr 5 models, built after 1949, and the three other models, not using the company name.
As a result of the war, there was a shortage of chassis in Hungary, but at the same time, there was a growing need for buses, as most of them were destroyed or severely damaged during the Siege of Budapest. The engineers were forced by the circumstances to develop a bus model without chassis. The result was the model Tr 3,5 with a unibody construction in 1948, which was the first in the world of its type. Some sources suggest the German Setra S8 as the first with such unibody construction, but that model was only started to be built in 1950. The small Tr 3,5 weighted only 3,7 tonnes – hence the name – and was 7.73 metres in length. The engine was produced by Rába, but at the time, the company could only produce some pre-war models that were used for their own — at this point obsolete — bus model, the Special.
During this short period, Ikarus had ambitious plans, as they designed two different bus models exclusively for export goals. One of these was the A19, which was designed with Southern-American standards in mind. It was built on a 10.5 metres long chassis, and every single passenger seat was rendered next to a window. The model was also full of decorations. Despite all the attempts, only two prototypes of the model were built, and both of them remained in Hungary.
The other attempt for export was much more successful. This model was called the M5 and was built on the same chassis as the Tr 5, but received a redesigned front, manually operated swing doors and somewhat more passenger seats. A total number of 170 of the model were produced, out of which 90 were sold to Poland, 45 to Romania, and even though it was intended to be an export model, 35 to the Hungarian company MÁVAUT.
Models between 1951 and 1967
In 1951, after a long and heated argument between the engineers and the political decision makers on whether unibody or body-on-frame vehicles should be produced, the parties managed to reach a compromise. The engineers — who were pro-unibody — were allowed to design one of the two upcoming models with such construction. But they were only permitted to develop a smaller bus, a successor to the Tr 3,5, while the political will forced them to create the larger vehicles on chassis. Out of this "compromise", the company's first vehicle was born that was actually bearing the factory's name: the Ikarus 30. It was designed as a universal vehicle to serve city and intercity routes, as well as coach services. However, the bus proved to be insufficient to be used in the cities, as it was way too small, narrow, and the windows on the roof were creating a greenhouse effect during the summer. Hence, the model received the sobriquet of nylonbus from the passengers.As much as it proved to be an insufficient city bus, it was successful as a coach. It became the first of many Ikarus models to be exported in large numbers. East Germany and China bought over 600 units each, while Czechoslovakia also ordered 500 vehicles.
The year 1951 sought another new model's birth as well: the Ikarus 60, which was the successor of the Tr 5 model. The Ikarus 60, as mentioned before, was a body-on-frame design forced by the decision makers, designed by the Vehicle Development Institution and constructed by Ikarus itself. The Ikarus 60 proved to be a versatile vehicle and with some modifications, many submodels were built on its basis. The most notable example is the Ikarus 60T, produced between 1952 and 1956, which was the company's first trolleybus model.
The other important submodels were the ITC 600 and the IC 660, which were built between 1960 and 1967 as one of the first mass-produced articulated bus models in the world. These modification were not done by Ikarus or its workers, but by FAÜ, one of the operator companies. Hence, they were often referred to as FAÜ-articulated.
There are a number of great achievements belonging to the company and one of those were the Ikarus 55 and Ikarus 66 sister models. Of the two unique models, there were a total of 16,726 units built between 1952 and 1973. Their engines were mounted in the rear section of the vehicles, which had a distinctive configuration and look, resulting in its common nickname Faros. The sister models became icons of Hungarian bus history.
In the second half of the 1950s, Ikarus started to develop the successors of the Ikarus 30 and 60 models, hence created the Ikarus 31 and the Ikarus 620. The former was sold in large numbers to East Germany, while the latter was popular in Hungary and the Soviet Union.
In 1963, the Hungarian state decided to merge the Általános Mechanikai Gépgyár or ÁMG with Ikarus. ÁMG's factory was in Székesfehérvár, hence the second plant of Ikarus was created there.
The 1960s were spent by redesigning the palette of models, out of which three models were born, which were based on the same design and elements: Ikarus 180, 556 and 557, which were to give an alternative to all the existing and still operating previous models. The Ikarus 180 must be highlighted out of the triumvirate, as it was the first articulated bus model developed and produced by Ikarus. Although, it must be mentioned, that for the development, the company acquired a Henschel HS 160 USL vehicle, which was developed by the German Henschel company and at the time was regarded as „The Articulated Bus”. Ikarus actually disassembled and reassembled the vehicle over and over again in order to understand it. Technically, it was almost identically copied by the engineers.
In the second half of the 1960s, the development of these three vehicles was stopped, when the company decided to invest most of its resources into a new, versatile model series. This series became known as the Ikarus 200-family.