American designs are aerodynamically better. they are potenitilly safer (crumple zone) though I haven't seen any safety studies.
American designs are aerodynamically better. they are potenitilly safer (crumple zone) though I haven't seen any safety studies.
> American designs are aerodynamically better
But that goes directly against TFA, doesn't it? The final image is closer to the European design than the American one? Or am I misunderstanding the article?
> they are potenitilly safer
Maybe for the occupants, but for everyone else they seem strictly worse, not to mention the visibility much be much much worse, making it a somwhat iffy tradeoff.
You're misunderstanding the context. The US at the time regulated truck length to a patchwork of shorter lengths state by state and so cabovers proliferated and that's what NASA chose as a base. So if you start with that and "add aero" it's going to trend toward what looks like a modern European design.
There are no crumple zones in a truck really.. You have straight frame rails. I guess the cast iron engine block gets a little crumply if you hit it hard enough..
Any space becomes a crumple zone - rails are great at that, but it is still something. Though as I said - I have never seen a study of relative safety.
In a cabover truck you're the crumple zone >_<