[AeroMcAeroFace]

Originally Posted by JulianEdgar

You cannot patent ideas, as a 30 second web search shows.

Why can't you patent an idea? Because an idea without evidence is valueless.

You can patent ideas without evidence or prototype, a common example of this in the UK is when British Rail (former nationalised rail provider) patented a passenger space vehicle powered by thermonuclear devices ignited from space lasers and steered using electromagnetism.

Thanks freebeard for trying to bring this debate back on topic. I have done a bit more research, and it seems further to the original SAE paper supporting the concept of aerofoil lifting to reduce rolling resistance, there is another SAE supporting paper here https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/207395374.pdf

I have included select quotes below

For instance, the creation of lift on
the vehicle (effective weight reduction) can unload the
tires and reduce rolling resistance,

For the conventional rig, the HP to overcome rolling resistance is linear with velocity. For the blown configurations,
lift is assumed to vary with blowing available and speed
squared, so the effective weight of the vehicle reduces as
the lift increases with speed.

For these cases, at
a sample speed of 70 mph, the power required for the
conventional rig to overcome drag plus rolling resistance
can be reduced 24% by the lesser pneumatic configuration and 32% by the more effective one