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The 33rd Lanchester Lecture. Automobile aerodynamics — the effects of airflow on road, racing and record breaking cars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

J. L. Stollery*
Affiliation:
College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University

Extract

Lanchester was undoubtedly a great British engineer. He died just 47 years ago, at which time the name Lanchester could be seen on the front of some motor cars, but many knew little about the great contributions that Frederick William Lanchester had made to both mechanical and aeronautical engineering.

Whether Lanchester was interested in automobile aerodynamics or not, the subject combines two of his great loves. He designed and built petrol-engined cars, and his 1898 machine won the RAC’s Gold Medal (Fig. 1). As might have been expected, the drag coefficient of this vehicle is not recorded.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1993 

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