US automotive giant Ford has added aero curtains to its pickup truck F-150 with a view to cutting down wind drag by manipulating airflow across the front wheels.
The technology, which was first introduced in Ford Mustang, lets air flow through a vent under the headlamps and channelized around the wheel.
By tweaking the aerodynamic visage of F-150, engineers at Ford succeeded in reducing the drag for achieving a gasoline EPA-estimated rating of 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway when powered by 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine 1.
The horizontal slots under the headlamps help the air flow from the front of the truck and form a skirt to reduce drag through wall of high-speed air over the outer surface of the wheel and tire.
Ford technical expert in applied computational fluid dynamics Rob Lietz said: "With the new F-150, an extensive amount of time was spent running aerodynamic simulations and doing wind tunnel tests.
"Major advances in our computational fluid dynamics capability let us quickly see how we could improve airflow while maintaining the tough truck looks expected from F-150."
The impact of technology cannot be detected with eyes but it has been inferred that rotating wheels emerge as a major source of drag. The wheels could have been enclosed in skirts to smooth the air flow but the company felt that it would have defeated the purpose of F-150.
