Streamlined forms have been applied empirically for centuries. Boats, for example, have had a pointed shape since prehistoric times, making them faster and easier to steer. The 18th century saw the first scientific research into streamlining as we understand it today, through experiments with boats and later with balloons and airships.
Wind tunnels
Many early experiments set out to compare forms in order to identify the perfect one. The wind tunnel is an important tool for research into aerodynamics and streamlining. From the early 20th century, it became the tool par excellence for visualizing how forms react to wind.
French engineer Gustave Eiffel also built a famous wind tunnel, in Auteuil, Paris, in 1912. Through a clever use of air pressure, his new tunnel consumed a lot less energy than the tunnels before it. Many other wind tunnels have since been built after the ‘Eiffel type’.
The perfect form
The Austrian engineer and streamlining pioneer Paul Jaray called as early as 1922 for cars to be streamlined. Having experimented with airships and other flying machines, Jaray concluded that cars would be much more fuel-efficient with a streamlined exterior.
Jaray advocated a streamline shape based on hard evidence. In his time, the “teardrop shape” was often considered the perfect streamline shape: rounded at the front, and pointed at the back. Jaray questioned this example. After all, an actual falling droplet did not look like this at all. Moreover, there was no scientific reason to believe that the shape of a droplet was suitable for cars.
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Historical streamlining books
Much has been and continues to be written about streamlining, the design style as well as the scientific phenomenon. A selection of historical books by curator Tomas van den Heuvel.
Streamlined solar cars
Solar cars need to be as efficient as possible and are therefore completely streamlined. In this video, Luc Evertzen of Solar Team Twente tells you more about the importance of streamlining solar cars.
Streamlined athletes
Cyclist Ellen van Dijk is a seven-time world champion and set the world hour record in 2022. In this video, she elaborates on why streamlining is important to her.
Streamlined animals
In search of the ideal streamline, people often look to nature. But what are we actually talking about when we talk about streamlined animals?
Streamlining and aerodynamic drag
What is a streamline? And what is aerodynamic resistance or ‘drag’?
Future
In our present age of climate upheaval and fuel shortages, reducing air resistance is right back at the top of the design agenda.
Performance
Aerodynamics or hydrodynamics are crucial to speed sports like swimming, cycling, skating, bobsledding and skiing.
Ideal
At its height, the streamlined design was accompanied by certain modern ideals.
Style
It was no coincidence that the streamlined look became so popular in the 1930s.
Icons
New, streamlined vehicles were frequently held out in advertisements as the future of transport. In this way, streamlined trains, cars, aeroplanes and boats assumed an iconic status.
Enchantment
For hundreds of years, a galloping horse was viewed as the epitome of speed. But this would change in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. New inventions like the train, the car and the aeroplane meant that speeds that once seemed fantastical were becoming increasingly possible. This new potential for progress had a huge…
Nature
Learning from nature can still be very useful when it comes to creating aerodynamic designs.
What exactly is streamlining?
The term “streamline” originates from science and engineering, but what is it?
