AirFlow StarShip Initial Reveal

[Xist]

Shepherd, do you ever have people say "You know that doesn't make a difference, right?"

I know people have told me that, but I have never done much ecomodding, although I would bet gas money that if I made a boat tail, people would tell me it did not work, and I could say "Hold on, this is my gas log, here is my performance in the Green Grand Prix, and here I am in a wind tunnel..."

"Whatever. You know that doesn't work."

Seriously, though, you have outdone yourself again!

[freebeard]

Finally!

Please be as verbose as you like about this. Like, do the tractor rear skirts hinge at the rear vertical edge and slide forward on the inside of a corner?

...an active aerodynamic, pneumatic mechanical origami-type device that articulates.

Slide or pivot?

What does the tail look like? Any plasma actuators?

[basjoos]

It'll be interesting to see if this rig produces less turbulence behind it and kicks up less water spray than a conventional rig.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by Xist

What is this? A semi for ants? How can we be expected to transport goods efficiently if they can’t even fit inside the truck? I don’t wanna hear your excuses! The tractor has to be at least three times bigger than this!

I hear you, but this is not vaporware. I have a full sized one, it's just not finished.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by Xist

Shepherd, do you ever have people say "You know that doesn't make a difference, right?"

I know people have told me that, but I have never done much ecomodding, although I would bet gas money that if I made a boat tail, people would tell me it did not work, and I could say "Hold on, this is my gas log, here is my performance in the Green Grand Prix, and here I am in a wind tunnel..."

"Whatever. You know that doesn't work."

Seriously, though, you have outdone yourself again!

Thanks for the kind words.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Finally!

Please be as verbose as you like about this. Like, do the tractor rear skirts hinge at the rear vertical edge and slide forward on the inside of a corner?

Slide or pivot?

What does the tail look like? Any plasma actuators?

The carbon fiber rear tractor skirts are both hinged and have horizontal sliders as well. The hinges are on top end of the skirts. We have race car panel buttons on the outside of the skirts that we simply push to unlock the panels from their skirt hangers. We then slide the whole skirt outward 4" on the sliders until they meet fixed stops, then lift the skirt up over the hangers. We needed the 4" of travel on the sliders so the skirt would clear the trailer when it was connected to the tractor. Without the sliders, we would not be able to open the skirts past the 90 degree opening point.

The mechanical tractor to trailer gap sealer on the rear bulkhead of the cab is very similar to the boat-tail below. But it has one continuous top panel in 3 sections, as opposed to the 2 separate panels on the trailer, as there are no doors on the rear of the cab.

I have an amazingly cool video of the gap sealer working in Augmented Reality (AR) that I cannot share yet, unfortunately. When we tweak the AR some more for accuracy, I'll be hopefully able to post it here.

We have been talking with the plasma folks for a couple of years now, but it's not ready for prime time yet.

The trailer boat-tail is an active aerodynamic, 4 panel WABCO unit that they custom built for us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPRizDvVTvo

It is stock except we had them extend the side panels downward to the top edge of the horizontal impact protection bar (bumper) at the rear of the trailer. So we basically have a laminar flow that is not interrupted from the rear trailer skirts to the boat-tail, unlike almost everyone else. They are pneumatically operated and currently open at 40 mph and stow at 10 mph, keyed off of the WABCO stability control and ABS computer on the trailer. We may tweak those mph settings.

As you can see from the images below, Strick built this trailer for me without any light cut-outs in the rear stainless steel door frame. We have 24" wide, 1" tall DOT approved LED taillights, mounted inside of that rear impact protection bar. When the boat-tail is stowed or deployed, a vehicle behind the trailer can still see the taillights and that conspicuity tape.



The top panels are in the stowed position while we install the full-length side panels.

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by basjoos

It'll be interesting to see if this rig produces less turbulence behind it and kicks up less water spray than a conventional rig.

There will be astronomically less splash and spray with this rig over a conventional truck.

[freebeard]

Thanks. My imagination will have to substitute for the Photobucket place holders.

Tractor wheelbase is essentially equal to a conventional cab?

When are you going to update that avatar pic?

[rmay635703]

Now you need to apply your tech to diesel motor homes

[Shepherd777]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Thanks. My imagination will have to substitute for the Photobucket place holders.

Tractor wheelbase is essentially equal to a conventional cab?

When are you going to update that avatar pic?

Sorry, I forgot about those idiots at Photobucket.

Copy that on the wheelbase.

Soon.