| 摘要 |
A three-wheeled vehicle (10) designed to provide practical transportation for one or two people at minimum energy cost, wherein the driver and passenger sit in tandem in a narrow enclosed fuselage (12). Steering is provided by a single front wheel (14), and a propulsion system drives the two rear wheels (16). Vertical airfoils or fins (20) enclose and streamline the upper portions of the rear wheels, while providing the vehicle with aerodynamic stability and forward thrust in a crosswind. Horizontal struts (18) connect the fuselage with the vertical fin-wheel assemblies. The juncture between struts and fuselage are faired with concave fillets (22) which enlarge toward the rear, and terminate in a surface (26) perpendicular to the longitudinal axis. The fillets reduce vehicle drag by preventing flow separation. Aerodynamic drag of the vehicle is about one-sixth that of typical subcompact cars, and its aerodynamic stability keeps it on course in crosswinds, despite being less than half as heavy.
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