Tuesday 20th June 1989

German entrepreneur and vehicle manufacturer, Otto Kässbohrer (85), who in 1951 designed and constructed one of the first chassisless buses, manufactured under the name Setra, died. The first Setra bus, the Type S 8, so called because it contained eight rows of seats, was introduced in April 1951 at the German Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung. It featured a self-supporting body designed by Otto Kässbohrer, a concept now featured in most modern buses. Equally unusual at the time was the decision to locate the engine behind the rear axle; though the rear mounted engine configuration is another Kässbohrer-Setra innovation which subsequently became mainstream, simplifying the production process and creating a range of passenger focused possibilities both as to the level of the floor area in the passenger and driver/crew sections, and, where high floor layouts are specified, of the uses available for the underfloor area.