Cars
1921. Paul Jaray and his airships on four wheels
Paul Jaray was an engineer who applied his expertise in aerodynamics to cars after the end of World War I. He developed a set of design principles called the "Jaray code" to make cars more aerodynamic.
The signing of the Treaty of Versailles, on 28 June 1919, formally ended the First World War and, with it, Germany’s activity in the field of aviation. This left Paul Jaray, a young engineer who had worked in the Zeppelin wind tunnel on the streamlining of German airships, suddenly wondering what to do with his expertise. Until he decided to apply it to the motor car.
Jaray's work in the Zeppelin wind tunnel led to aerodynamic solutions for road cars
His approach was certainly pragmatic: just as airships, for efficiency reasons, all looked more or less the same, he reckoned that cars, too, could be built following a clearly defined aerodynamic model that would — unfortunately as it turned out — give them similar lines. Working on this premise, he developed a set of design principles, sort of “Jaray code”, according to which the different parts of the car were designed specifically to obtain a low CX. Don’t forget that cars in those days were very square shaped.
