Have an inflatable cone at the back of semi-trailers to lower aerodynamic drag.-- MisterQED, Dec 24 2007 "Retracting anti drag appendage" Retracting_20anti_20drag_20appendageRedundant? [BJS, Dec 26 2007] Handy if you happen to drive into the back of one, also.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 24 2007 And a Merry Christmas to half and all.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Dec 24 2007 Would also be handy for the modified-with-skirts and spoilers crowd. Instead of fiberglass repair, you just detach the mounting points and install a new car-loon.-- normzone, Dec 24 2007 Yay! Gonflable.-- skinflaps, Dec 25 2007 Saw this idea in PopSci long time ago, no one ever went anywhere with it. I don't know why not, but whatever the reasons are I'm applying all of them to your idea.
And bunning it anyway. Anything that raises fuel mileage in the fuel-thirstiest vehicles on the road can't be all bad.
BMW car carriers have a sort of curvy arse, why is that? Does anyone know what's going on inside that big rounded bustle on BMW's enclosed transporters?-- elhigh, Dec 26 2007 [UB], I agree, I think you could add a couple of aero add-ons reasonably easily to cover the gap between the trailer and the cab, the trailer and the ground and maybe even a hollow nose cone(for cooling), especially for cab-overs with flat fronts.
The idea being to design them to be inflatable on the highway and then vacuum deflated and auto-stored away for city trafic.-- MisterQED, Dec 26 2007 [UB], some designer cranked out a stack of aerodynamic concepts, and named them all Utah x (x = positive integer). A couple of them were trucks, one had a central driving position and, strangest of all, a gigantic hole in the center the directed airflow at the front of the trailer. With a rounded front on the trailer, that plus the airflow coming around the side of the cab made for a nearly-laminar flow around the trailer. Neat, but weird.-- elhigh, Dec 27 2007 random, halfbakery