Alternative to Canopies/Windscreens/Front Roll Hoops

[bhall]

As beautiful as Mr. McDowell's work may be - and I thank you for it - I don't think we should mistake it for the product we're likely to see on-track. All we know is that Paddy Lowe said his team has stopped researching a canopy solution. That's it. So, it's quite pointless make speculative guesses as to what might happen with a speculative solution that might involve a bar/cage-type structure.

[N12ck]

I did that from reference images of the cage tested by the fia when shooting a tyre at it, when a new fia image comes up I will create another

[astracrazy]

its very difficult to think of a solution which doesn't cause another problem i.e restricting the driver from quickly exiting the car (is it 5 secs?) or stopping proper access to the driver in the event of a serious accident.

[N12ck]

Yes it is 5 seconds

[ESPImperium]

only the roll thing at the front is to prevent the driver's head from hitting the road if the car goes upside down.

The current roll bar and cockpit bulkhead is spaced so that the helmet never touches the ground when upside down.


The front roll bar is to prevent large objects (like a tyre) from directly impacting the helmet.

I am led to belive that there will be a change to where the second roll structure will be, it is to move forward toward the front wheel centre line more to where the feet are on that drawing in order to give a partial wind sheild. However if there is a full wind canopy the primary roll hoop will have to increase to 1000mm obove refrence plane.

I think the look of the 2014 cars will not be liked at first, but as with the platipus noses this year, they will be resented then adopted as looking normal.

Personally, i think the nose designs are still causing problems, the nose tip needs to come down to in line with the front wheel centre line (Hub height) and have a flat bottom profile. This would mean that cars would not go over one another as much.

A pic i did for another thread:



Yes alot of aero would be lost from the air going under and arround, but safety must be a priority over performance, whitch will always be clawed back over time anyways.

[skgoa]

And let's remember we WANT to limit aero benefits of the floor.

its very difficult to think of a solution which doesn't cause another problem i.e restricting the driver from quickly exiting the car (is it 5 secs?) or stopping proper access to the driver in the event of a serious accident.

I've been thinking: why not go for side doors? keep the cockpit tight, put let the driver enter and exit through the side. The sidepods would have to move back and/or down a bit and the cars would probably become a couple of centimeters fatter but that's it.

[astracrazy]

within the sidepod area you are talking about moving is crash protection for the driver

[safeaschuck]

Solid (non-transparent?) Canopy with augmented vision is possible, now:

Full article - http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19372299

BAE's Striker helmet gives fighter pilots 'X-ray vision'

When a pilot in a Eurofighter Typhoon jet glances down, he doesn't see a steel-grey floor. Instead he sees clouds, and maybe sheep and cows in green fields below.

If he were to spot an enemy down there, or anywhere near the aircraft, he would not need to point the plane towards the target.

He would simply look at it - through the solid hull of the plane - make sure that a tiny symbol displayed on his helmet's visor was aligned with the object, press a button and fire.

The pilot is wearing BAE Systems' Striker HMSS helmet, the UK defence company's latest development. Putting augmented reality technology - as used in video games - to military use is the latest goal for helmet makers around the world.

Cameras all around the aircraft are wirelessly linked to BAE's helmet; the system checks in which direction the pilot is looking, and then displays the exact view on the visor, in real time.

...

"If a pilot wears a Striker helmet - which is essentially a helmet with an integrated display - when he sees something on the ground he can just turn his head, put a symbol across on to the point of interest, press a button, and the system will calculate the object's co-ordinates," says Alan Jowett of BAE Systems.

"The aircraft can then turn its sensors, cameras or weapons in that direction - so it allows a dialogue directly between the plane and the pilot."

...

But one retired RAF pilot says that adopting too much technology worries him.

"The biggest computer in my day, in the 1970s and 1980s, was the human brain. Now the human brain is in the business of managing all the data the plane is feeding to it," says Andrew Brookes, a former wing commander.

"You're not flying - the computer does the flying. You just sit in an armchair, so to speak, and manage the battle space, manage all the inputs that are coming around from miles away, and a lot of it is fused under the screen in the helmet in front of your eyes.

"And while the precision power is awesome, and the intelligence-gathering capability is awesome, you become an all-seeing being in the sky.

"That's frightening when you think about it - as everything becomes more technological, there's less and less of the human flying element, and some people may not realise they are making a transition from a video game in their living room to a big video game in a conflict.

"And in real life, there is simply no reset button."

I'd love to see this in F1, this would be a real breakthrough, an exiting addition, a real change to the formula with hardly any detriment. In fact I'm going to go further.
There are a number of concepts (and working prototypes) emerging for transformable 'Flying cars' or at least 'Roadable Light Aircraft' which are approaching being production ready, financially viable (in very small volumes) business ideas.

As stated earlier in the post, autonomous vehicles would be highly favoured by many stakeholders, a far higher throughput of traffic on a given roadsystem, less crashes, and a quicker, less stressfull commute. Who dosen't want that? So it probably will happen.

In this autonomous car future perhaps driving purists might take to the sky for some freedom. Hmm, what industry has some of the best windtunnels, CFD, and aerodynamacists in the world? How much more lift could they provide within the dimensions of a typical road car?
Would they be able to create a flying car that didn't actually need wings? (control surfaces aside).

So anyone who dosen't want enclosed cockpits in F1, remote control of some or possibly all functions, argh, maybe even expermenting with autonomous control (one day in the future, maybe), if you are saying 'hands off, an F1 car is an F1 car, no matter how much the world around us is changing there are certain things which should be protected from progress within the sport that I currently enjoy watching, even though cutting edge tech is one of the main reasons for my interest, and indeed reason for my visit to this forum, I have a solution for you...

Freeze all technical rules as they stand today for 20 years. an easy cost control measure. Leave all the day to day operators of the team in place (Mechanics, Truckies, Sales & Marketing etc) and take all the innovators (Designers, R&D, Testing etc) and go and make F1 2.0 which should look a cross between a Star Wars pod race and Wip3out.
Yes, Wip3out.
From the Playstation.

Do it now, I'm waiting with my credit card to buy a subscription to the channel that shows Alonso vs Hamilton in Flying cars.