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design
My thought is that the wheel pants on an aircraft with fixed landing gear would present ideal forms,with the cod-head leading edge and mackerel tail strake/fairing behind.---------------------------------- The trouble with automobiles is the clearance when we park,and go up and down ramped driveways.------------------------------------------------------------- I think the simple structures we see on late model cars are there to guide the air away from a head-on collision with the face of the tire traveling vertically down towards the road surface at road velocity.Kind of like running into a waterfall,with great turbulence.The simple panel steers the air around the face of the tire and is close enough to the tire face that it isn't torn off the car when it pulls up to a curb when parking.Ideally,the forward structure would be more like that on the airplane,it's just that airplanes don't have to park at a curb,so I think these simple panels are just a compromise to the practical necessities of driving.
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