SCIENCE OF STREAMLINING

Hawera Star, Volume L, 29 November 1930, Page 12

SCIENCE OF STREAMLINING

DESIGNERS’ NEW STUDY

AMERICAN MYSTERY OAR

lii many of the new makes of motor cars some revolutionary and almost winmsLaf eltects in body designs are noted. Designers are giving the greatest attention to the science or streamlining, wnich reaches its greatest perfection in the Golden Arrow itself. What will the car of the future be like? What manner of car will rule the roads and complete with airplanes that cruise far ahead and land on the tops of skyscrapers with the utmost security? Except for the ©volution of outline, dictated more by fashion than science, motor cars have very much the same general shape as they have had for many a long year. Engineers have been content to develop power units to the highest possible pitch of perfection and. to improve transmissions, ball hearings, and such aids to easy running. In fact, their aim has been to reduce “mechanical” frictional losses.

No one would deny that they have been remarkably successful. But is it not rather extraordinary that one of the main points which, affect easy passage through the air has been so much neglected ? We refer to the shape of the car as a whole. With one or two notable exceptions designers do not take into much account the natural force of the air, which all the time, in greater or less degree, is doing its best to negative the efforts of the mechanism to make the car go forward. Itadiator surfaces, flat lamps, big windscreens, all offer formidable obstacles to propelling a car against air resistance; and big, flat sterns allow the displaced wind further to impede progress by assisting it to rush in behind the moving vehicle and try to suck it backward. Indeed, air-created retardation at the rear often is a more formidable obstacle to forward progression than is backward pressure on the front of the car.

The remedy is so to shape the complete car that it “flows” through the air with a minimum of effort. \\ e know a great deal about scientific streamlining to-day. The airships and the Golden" Arrow and other famous speed cars prove that. But the knowledge is not generally applied, as it might and should be, to touring vehicles. It may. he in the near future if the lessons of a remarkable car recently designed are taken to' heart. Correct streamlining means less engine for given work, and that means less weight, lower cost and diminished expenses. Pei'haps the subject of facilitating the passage of cars through the air will prove the next field of investigation by automobile engineers. We maybe on the eve of a new era in car design and appearance. Time alone will prove or disprove that. Behind a screen of deepest, mystery one of the great motor-car manufacturers of the United States is evolving a road competitor for the airplane which, with the extension, of superhighways, will bring a new era of rapid transportation. Ope of the amazing features of the new car is that

a speed of more than 100 miles an hour, according 4 to engineers, is safer than, a much lower speed. This new type of motor car has decidedly futuristic lines. It is expected to be ready by the time that it is anticipated that roads suitable for safe speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour will extend the length and breadth of the country. Wind pressure, which now lights against speed, will be the friendly genie that will make these great speeds safe. To this end, every feature of the mystery car is being tested in the whirlwind of super-wind tunnels, designed after exhaustive research by ventilating engineers. Powerful fans provide hurricanes beyond any ever loosened by nature in her wildest moods.

Under the pressure of a wind which, if developed by the car’s own motion, would represent a speed far in excess of 100 miles an hour, this mysterymodel hugs the ground and is held to the road. As scientists know, a fast-moving object acting on still air causes it to present almost the characteristics of a solid, and this fact is being utilised to the utmost in the development of the car of the future. Instead of exerting a pressure that tends to lift the car from the ground, the wind pushes down, exerting tremendous pressure aud making it impossible for the car to turn over at high speed. This tends to make speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour really safer than the slower speeds. Some idea of this new car can be obtained from the Golden Arrow, which established a record of 231.36 miles an hour on the sands of Daytona Beach, Florida.

So far this car represents the farthest advance in turning wind resistance into “win'd assistance” ever seen. The scoop-like prow presents an area against which the wind forms a terrific pressure. The gentle upward slope transfers this back pressure into a downward pressure which holds the car against the road. Careful streamlining prevents counteracting pressures against the rest of the car.