[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Otto

This is exactly why I asked in another thread about optimum nose shape.

Mother Nature tells us with her snowscapes that nose shapes count. It would be wonderful if somebody could extract coordinates for these shapes.

Also, for shape modification around windshield wipers, mirror stalks, door handles, etc., you could use Great Stuff expanding foam to pretty much duplicate the snow sculpture. Protect the car surfaces with Saran Wrap, slather on Great Stuff, and squeege and/or sand the foam to match the snow shape. Test.

If you build, say, a 1/4 scale model and had powder snow available, you could mount the model on a turntable with a weathervane tail, set it outside in a snowstorm, and study the results. The turntable/weathervane would keep the model facing into the wind.

BTW, in the pics above, the snow profile shape is quite similar to the leading edge of an airfoil, and also quite similar to Hucho's (page 158) "ideal" nose shape. I'd just like to see how such a nose would look in planform, i.e., from above.

the shape is similar to Hucho's ideal shape from 1976 or so