Shark Fin Antennas - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

trikkonceptz · 03-27-2009, 12:33 PM

I know many of you have seen them and they offer them for just about every vehicle as a replacement to OEM antennae. My question is not if they are better than some stock whip antennas but if they would do more good backwards instead of forward facing because of surface area that faces the wind. This link has the picture. Mind you some designs are thicker because they have to house an antenna base.

http://www.visualgarage.com/Ebay/Sha.../Fin_Cad_1.jpg

wagonman76 · 03-27-2009, 01:01 PM

It is hard to tell from the picture if the rear of the antenna is square edged, or if it is rounded. It would certainly be better if rounded.

trikkonceptz · 03-27-2009, 01:40 PM

I dont think it had a sharp edge in the rear, I am getting it regardless, I just wondered if it would be better if mounted backwards ..

Piwoslaw · 03-27-2009, 02:17 PM

mount it forward and add a mini-boattail to it

hummingbird · 03-27-2009, 02:18 PM

trik, I get what you are driving at...

But it is not the teardrop tapering OUTLINE that is important, it is the overall cross section profile area that needs to taper to be better aerodynamically.

It is due to this reason that some early fast fighter aircraft fuselages had a strange 'dimple' at the point where wings met the fuselage The wings added a sudden additional area when cross section is considered. That prevented the aircrafts to overcome drag particularly flying close to Mach1 figure. the trick designers used there was to give a 'dimple' in the fuselage, that reduced sudden increase in the cross-section area. This helped push aircrafts to higher speeds. google and you can find some references in the US air force fighter aircraft history.

The sharkfin antenna does look fatter at the front tip than the end - if the end is tapered in its vertical wall cross section, it would be better. Jury is out on that here as the rear view is not clear.

vtec-e · 03-27-2009, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hummingbird

It is due to this reason that some early fast fighter aircraft fuselages had a strange 'dimple' at the point where wings met the fuselage The wings added a sudden additional area when cross section is considered. That prevented the aircrafts to overcome drag particularly flying close to Mach1 figure. the trick designers used there was to give a 'dimple' in the fuselage, that reduced sudden increase in the cross-section area. This helped push aircrafts to higher speeds. google and you can find some references in the US air force fighter aircraft history.

Whoaaaa!!! There's a random nugget of knowlege! Thanks!

ollie

TestDrive · 03-27-2009, 05:17 PM

Never heard of Shark Fin Antennas before, so I googled them.
Found this animated gif that may help visualization.

Extracted Frames:

TestDrive · 03-27-2009, 05:19 PM

Rest of Extracted Frames:

Drive Stick · 03-27-2009, 06:23 PM

It's designed perfectly for the most part facing forwards. Backwards it would create wind noise, and more drag.

As it sits it's like a little kammback vehicle, it's perfect really.

Drive Stick · 03-27-2009, 06:27 PM

Oh, and by the way my brother put one on his new 08 Altima... the radio no longer works.

Everything is installed properly, it simply can't compete with a stock antenna it doesn't even pick up local stations (with in 15 miles) that's pretty sad.