Aurel Persu (26 December 1890 – 5 May 1977) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and pioneer car designer, the first to place the wheels inside the body of the car as part of his attempt to reach the perfect

aerodynamic Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

shape for

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

.Aurel Persu
Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks He came to the conclusion that the perfectly aerodynamic automobile must have the shape of a falling water drop, taking it one step further toward that shape than

the car ''The Car'' is a 1977 American horror film directed by Elliot Silverstein and written by Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack and Lane Slate. The film stars James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley and Ronny Cox, along with real-life sisters Kim ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Edmund Rumpler Edmund Elias Rumpler (4 January 1872 – 7 September 1940) was an Austrian automobile and aircraft designer. Born in Vienna, then Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Austria),Wise 1974, p.1964 he worked mainly in Germany.Lyons 1988, p.73 An automo ...

had presented in Berlin in 1921.

Patented aerodynamic design

Persu, a specialist in airplanes aerodynamics and dynamics, implemented his idea in 1922–1923 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, building an automobile with an incredibly low

drag coefficient In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient (commonly denoted as: c_\mathrm, c_x or c_) is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment, such as air or water. It is used in the drag equ ...

of 0.28 (same as a modern

Porsche Carrera Carrera (''Spanish'' for "race" and "career") is a brand of Porsche automobile. The name commemorates the company's success in the Carrera Panamericana race. The following vehicles have been called ''Carrera'': * Porsche 356 * Porsche 904 * Por ...

) or even 0.22 (still seldom among modern production cars), depending on the source. This drag coefficient was far better that the 0.8–1.0 common with automobiles used at that time. This allowed for the fuel consumption to decrease 4–5 times in Persu's automobile. It was the first car to have the wheels inside its aerodynamic line, which we take for granted today. This was Persu's main innovation compared to the 1921

Rumpler Tropfenwagen The Rumpler Tropfenwagen ("Rumpler drop car", named after its raindrop shape) was a car developed by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. The Tropfenwagen Aerodynamics Rumpler, born in Vienna, was known as a designer of aircraft when at the 1921 Ber ...

("drop car") of Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. Considering the diminished distance between the rear wheels, he gave up the differential system for the transmission of the engine torque. This meant that the car could safely negotiate curves at up to . Persu's design received German patent number 402683 in 1924 and US patent 1648505 in 1927.

Technical museum

The original automobile ran for . Aurel Persu donated it fully functional in 1961 to the

Dimitrie Leonida Technical Museum The Dimitrie Leonida Technical Museum was founded in 1909 by Dimitrie Leonida, inspired by the München Technical Museum, he had visited during his studies in Charlottenburg Polytechnic Institute. In 1908, with the help of the first promotions ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

The Technical Museum "Dimitrie Leonida"
. Cimec.ro where it has since been on display.

Derivative car designs

The original design work of Aurel Persu inspired future iconic American car designs: * Aptera *

Dymaxion car The streamlined Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair. Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Star ...

, designed by

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

Notes and references

External links

''Streamline Power Vehicle'' United States Patent US1648505
{{DEFAULTSORT:Persu, Aurel 20th-century Romanian engineers 20th-century Romanian inventors 1977 deaths 1890 births

Patented aerodynamic design

Technical museum

Derivative car designs

See also

Notes and references

External links