Date:         Tue, 30 Apr 1996 08:23:22 +1000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         dwoolard@calpoly.edu (Don Woolard)
Subject:      Aerodynamics

I attended a lecture by Jay Baldwin last night.  He discussed the Dymaxion
car designed and built by Buckminster Fuller in the twenties and thirties.

For those who do not know it, this car was a three wheel, 11 seater that
had rear engine and front wheel drive.  The single rear wheel steered and
the car was able to park in its own length and turn circles with one wheel
on a manhole cover.  It used a standard Ford engine of the day and got 30
mpg!  The standard Ford of the same era was getting about 10 mpg.

VW content:  The front of the car looked a lot like a more streamlined
splittie with about 6 split and angled panels on the front.  The lecturer
said that the front was designed to provide a partial vacuum that helped
"suck" the car along and that the rear engine exhausted its hot air to the
rear - the hot air expanded as it left and provided a "push" for the car.
These things helped explain the excellent mileage!  What do you think? -
could this explain why our busses go so fast?
Don.