Quote:
Originally Posted by max_frontal_area
steve, how long is your concept cone? will it be dragging and being consumed by crushed toilets and shredded tires when not receiving the min cfm required?
how heavy is it, will it need guy wires to keep its shape when vehicle is not movining @ like early windturbines and double and tripple decker airplanes once used?
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It would be very light. I was thinking ripstop nylon.
In order to prevent it from dragging the ground when coming to a stop I was thinking along these lines... try to follow along....
Say the basic shape is a cone with corners, or a rectangular cone. Along each seam/corner there would be a small ring or loop on the inside of the material down the length of the seam every 8" or so. A fishing line runs down the through these loops, one line per seam, starting at the large end down the seam to the small end. It will be attached at the large end. At the small opening (end) of the boattail the 4 lines get tied together and attached to a single line that runs straight back to the car through the middle of the boattail, not through loops or anything, just straight from the end of the tail to the trunk of the car. Here, there is a retracting mechanism that is constantly trying to pull on this string, and therefore "close" or retract the boattail. I was thinking something along the lines of a tapemeasure.
This way the boattail will be retracted completely at low speeds and extend as speeds increase. And using the loops and strings for each corner will make sure you arent just turning it inside out, it will actually retract closed in a somewhat orderly fashion.