Surfing the internet,I ran across a comment by a fella in,I think,Midland,Texas,who did undergraduate work at the Texas Tech aero lab.
They were working under a General Motors sponsored program which did the tonneau cover research which led to the 1/2-tonneau patent.
What struck me was his comment that the 1/2-tonneau was within 1% of drag that was achieved with the 'aeroshell.'
Since the GM patent application predates Texas Tech's SAE paper for their tonneau cover/aeroshell research,it looks like credit for the creation of the aeroshell goes to GM.
Even though Texas Tech's Ford Motor Company-sponsored SAE work mentioned the 'aeroshell',at a corporate level,not mentioning aeroshells in particular might be one of those 'not-invented-here' omissions.Only a guess.
