The British aviation pioneer George Cayley argued as early as 1804 that the shape of boats ought to be deduced from ‘a better designer than man’. In other words, from God. In its early days, the streamlined shape was often held out as the perfect, natural form. In the 1930s, American designers referred to the salmon and the rounded pebble as proof that their flowing forms were the most natural: after all, they were supposedly the result of a long evolution.
Shape, skin and movement
In their quest for perfection, however, designers sometimes assume that nature has a grand plan, which is not the case. Animals that can run, fly or swim fast are each ‘streamlined’ in their own way. Their shape, their skin, and their movement all have a part to play. Shark skin, for instance, is not smooth but covered in minute ‘teeth’, over which water flows more easily. Some birds of prey, meanwhile, adjust their shape with immense precision so that they can swoop down on their prey at great speed.
Biomimicry
Even if ‘divine perfection’ does not exist, learning from nature can still be very useful when it comes to creating aerodynamic designs. Designers then often study the functions of certain traits acquired through evolution. Scientists call the emulation of nature ‘biomimicry’. Swimsuits, for instance, can be based on shark skin.
Chronophotography
Before you can learn from nature, you have to study it carefully. During the nineteenth century, the camera made it possible to capture the movement of animals and humans millisecond by millisecond for the very first time. Important pioneers of ‘chronophotography’, as the technique was called, included the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge and the French physiologist Étienne Jules-Marey.
Swimming penguin. Photo by David Herraez Calzada, via Alamy.
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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.
Experiment
Many early experiments set out to compare forms in order to identify the perfect one.
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…
What exactly is streamlining?
The term “streamline” originates from science and engineering, but what is it?
