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FORUM: PEOPLE & MARKETS
Research & development
Wind and weather
Temperatures ranging from minus 40 to plus 60 degrees Celsius, hurricanes with wind
speeds up to 265 kilometres an hour, tropical rainfall and heavy snowstorms: all
part of the standard repertoire in two new climatic wind tunnels recently
opened by Daimler at its Mercedes Benz Technology Centre in Sindelfingen.
The new climatic wind tunnels will allow test engineers to optimize
new vehicles or components for all possible wind and weather conditions
at a very early stage in the development process. “In our
new climatic wind tunnels we can create any climatic conditions
we choose, to replicate any of the seasons. It’s all done with
very narrow tolerances so that the tests can be repeated at
any time,” says Dr Thomas Weber, member of the Board of
Management of Daimler AG, Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars. For example, in the new cold
tunnel it’s even possible to find out whether snow swirled up by a truck driving ahead of the car is
likely to block the air intakes.
Aviation
Flying hybrids
The “DA36 E-Star”, or “Cri-Cri” for short, is set to
change aviation. At the Paris Air Show in June,
Siemens, Diamond Aircraft and EADS presented the
world’s prototype two-seater motor glider with serial
hybrid electric drive. It is hoped this technology,
which has so far only been used in electric cars, will
in future help cut fuel consumption and emissions
by as much as 25 percent. A small Wankel combustion
engine drives a generator to power a 70-kilowatt
electric engine that runs the aircraft’s propeller. A battery system supplies additional power during
takeoff and ascent. The batteries are recharged during cruising with low aerodynamic drag.
04 DACHSER magazine