Quote:
Originally Posted by trebuchet03
Ever since I saw your beetle... I've always wondered what the inspiration behind the winglet shape was.
Beautiful build though, I'm always a fan of quality  |
I think it was about 1978, I was sitting at the same table with Peter Lissaman of Aerovironment. I told a story I thought was funny about a school teacher that said we should put a wind turbine on a car. The faster the car went, the more power you get from the turbine, and that would power the car, we would never need gas again. I then commented that if there was a headwind, you could get more energy from the turbine than what you might need to power the car.
Lissaman, in a condescending tone, said he had published a paper on that 10 years before that showed you could power the car provided there was wind from any direction.
I took that lesson away with me, and realized that just a simple fin on a car had the potential to improve fuel economy by developing lift, provided that there was some available cross-wind.
When I was designing the wing, I had every intention of putting on tall fins, maybe about 3 feet tall. Family members pressured me to abandon that idea. We made a family project out of it, to design the winglets. And, what you see was accepted by all before the build was started.
My public response: Girls fall in love with my car. The Bull-Durham chewers out here laugh at it and call me unpleasant names.
Cars generate corner vortices similar to those on aircraft wings, and I suppose there may be some small benefit in suppressing them.
I still secretly intend to put on the three-foot fins some day.
Ernie Rogers