Old Kickstarter Campaign: Gas Blade
 

Hello all,

I was just browsing kickstarter and saw an old (expired) campaign for something called the “Gas Blade” which acts as an air splitter for the grille of your car.

I’m not related to the product or company, just thought you guys might enjoy reading through this prototype

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...gasblades-ever

Ten people pledged an average of $57 for a $50 product. They were looking for $3500 for a bender to facilitate their garage business.

At least they found the size of their market.

...but is there any validity to the theory behind this thing?

The fuel economy improvements described (from 38 to 44 mpg) certainly sound too good to be true.

Probably not, IMHO.

The wake of that device dies at the stagnation point.

Compare the Herrod's Helper, a similar shape mounted below the back window of a VW Beetle. By shaping the wake of the whole car, it had some positive effect.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1236821838
ecomodder.com/.../old-school-original-vw-beetle-aeromods-herrod-helper-7444.html

'air splitter'
 

We know from 1907, and Frederick Lanchester's research that, the air will be 'splitting' itself around the vehicle long before the vehicle gets anywhere near the license plate location.
Anything attached the license plate will already be fully immersed within this divided flow ( any smoke-flow wind tunnel photograph will demonstrate the phenomena ).
Which makes 'Gas Blade' a solution to a problem that no one on Earth ever had.

A 16% fuel economy improvement from a small, curved metal piece? Impossible. All automotive manufacturers would be using it if all they needed was a cheap and simple part.

It's like an aero spike, it would work, at high subsonic speeds maybe in rocket applications.