SEVENTY YEARS OF AIR SUSPENSION
Modern buses are unimaginable without air suspension. Buses and coaches were the first vehicles which were fitted with this type of suspension. The first buses with air suspension appeared some 70 years ago on the US roads, when Firestone introduced the Airide. In Europe Dunlop and Conti were the forerunners, launching their system by the mid-1950’s. The first European bus fitted with air suspension was the Magirus Saturn II of 1957.
The first “air-spring” patent was issued to John Lewis of New Haven Connecticut in 1847. The history of air suspension shows the first early development on production passenger cars in 1914. Firestone set the standard for air spring manufacturing and technology in 1939 with the launching of the Airide system. Further development progressed during the early 1950’s with the GM Greyhound buses and GM parlor car
passenger rail carriages. By the mid 1950s, Dunlop was the first European manufacturer to offer a air suspension with the introduction of the Pneuride system, soon followed by the German Continental company.