STREAMLINING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1932, Page 16

STREAMLINING.

CARS AND TRAINS. DECREASED WIND RESISTANCE. COST OF OPERATION". It is anticipated by scientists and mechanical engineering experts that not only will motor cars and motor coaches 1)0 streamlined in the not distant future, but also high-speed trains. Increased speed will not be the major' objective, but rather decreased cost of operation. Applying the principles of scientific streamlining to automobile design, it has been proved that even at 40 m.p.h. air resistance demands 00 per cent of the total power. With correct streamlining —not just rounding off a few corners or a slight sloping of tlie windscreen, tor these half-way measures have little et'iect —a particularly large proportion of the power now required to propel a vehicle at even fast touring speed can be saved, tho percentage of saving increasing' with the speed. If the body, wheels, and mudguards, considered as a unit, are shaped acceding to modern aerodynamics a car shape can bo developed that will ha\o but oneliftli of the aif resistance of the present type of automobile, yet it will have the same ample passenger space as .lie modern sedan. It has been proved that a powerful sedan car, weighing about 32 cwt, that requires a 5)0 li.p. engine for an SO m.p.h. speed, has 84 per cent of_ its power absorbed in overcoming air lesiatauee, while if streamlined it could attain 100 m.p.h. with a 50 h.p. engine, instead of the 100 h.p. that would lie required before the conventional sedan could reach such a speed.

A present-day car, that has a top speed of 80 m.p.h. lias a petrol consumption of about 10 in.p.p. Streamline the same vehicle ami it will travel o0 miles to the gallon. It is for this reason tlmt streamlining is euro to be generally adopted some day. As to trains, it is computed that a train that now travels at 40 m.p.h., could, if the engine and carriages -were properly streamlined, attain a speed ot 100 m.p.h. at an additional cost tor (power of only a fraction of a hafpenny a mile. There 13 no doubt in the minds of experts as to whether streamlining will be adopted or not; the only question, they contend, is whcn t will happen and who will be the fust adopt scientific streamlining. As regards automobiles, the first radical move is likely to be sponsored in Europe, because such a change in design would not involve the colossnl f.nanual outlay that would have to be face I by the leading car manufacturers of U... .A. in recasting their mass production plants to take cave of a revolutionary type of automobile. —For this reason the swing over to correctly streamlined motor cais in America is more likely to be of gradual nature.