CDLLife has brought you features on trucks that have been coined t the trucks of the future. AirFlow is hoping the BulletTruck will shape the future of trucking.
AirFlow is working to design the world’s most functional, aerodynamic truck. This summer, engineers drove the prototype from Connecticut to California.
“We loaded in Connecticut and our first stop was in Tracy, California. We ran into 35 mph 3/4 headwinds all the way through Wyoming and 40 mph crosswinds traveling through Utah,” the site states.
AirFlow Truck Company
It’s not easy to refine the wheel, much less reinvent it.
But when we sat down to design and then create a brand new Class 8 tractor trailer rig with advanced aerodynamics, extraordinary fuel savings, and a very low emissions profile, we ended up revolutionizing over the road trucks, again.
One of our top priorities, as always, was to obtain the lowest cost-per-mile operating cost. How could we give fleet operators and owners a rig that will substantially reduce fuel and operating costs?
The answer is to use advanced 21st. century computer-aided-design aerodynamics, light weight modern materials and assembly, and innovative but practical solutions to common problems. A partial list of these innovative solutions include:
- Innovative body “morphing” techniques are used that enable the body to change its shape and vastly improve the aerodynamics of the vehicle at highway speeds but allow for normal loading and maneuvering in traffic.
- The use of a full-sized ducted radiator hidden underneath an extremely aerodynamic body. No giant, dumb, brick-square “Portrait” radiators are used onAirFlow trucks! Additionally, radiator Ram Air effect is increased via beautifully sculptured ducting.
- Hybridized A/C Compressor and Power Steering pump greatly reduce diesel engine parasitic losses and emissions and increases fuel economy.
- A large, inexpensive, software-driven LCD panel in the dashboard is used to replace all the heavy and expensive round “steam-gauges” and provides all information on critical systems operation. All anomalies or out-of-tolerance conditions are annunciated on these panels.
- Simple and inexpensive video cameras capture the images historically supplied from the large fuel-robbing outside rear view mirrors of the past. These images are displayed on two additional inexpensive dashboard LCD panels, mounted on each side of the steering column.