An engineer at NASA who noticed poor truck aerodynamics during a bicycle ride initiated research in the 1970s that helped reshape semi-tractor design toward more streamlined, fuel-efficient shapes.
The 1973 oil crisis and soaring fuel prices shifted industry priorities from maximizing payload to improving fuel economy, making aerodynamic efficiency financially urgent, and NASA provided research capabilities many inventors and manufacturers lacked.
Earlier innovations included Dean Hobbensiefken, a self-taught engineer and owner-operator who built the streamlined Paymaster and sought roughly 40 percent better efficiency than 1960s cabovers, and Trailmobile with the University of Maryland, which developed the roof fairings common on trucks today.
These developments addressed a century of blocky cabover designs that often returned about five miles per gallon and helped establish aerodynamics as a central aspect of modern truck design.
Read the full article at theautopian.com.
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