Румплер Тропфенваген: загадка из 1921 года, обогнавшая аэродинамику на 60 лет

Berlin, 1921. At the first post-war auto show, the crowd is transfixed by a strange exhibit: sleek, elongated, and pointed, resembling a gondola removed from an airship. This is the Rumpler Tropfenwagen—the "teardrop car" of Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. A former aircraft designer, disqualified from building airplanes, he transferred the laws of the sky to the road: an engine behind the driver, a central, pilot-like seating position, curved windows, independent suspension, and a shape polished by nature itself. Almost 60 years later, a surviving example was driven through a wind tunnel—and the instruments will reveal what production cars will achieve only by the late 1980s. This episode tells the full story of the "drop": from engineering insight and public ridicule to the unexpected fate of a Berlin taxi, a racing triumph on a foreign highway, and the filming of a symbol of the future in Fritz Lang's legendary "Metropolis." Plus, the bitter and noble fate of Rumpler himself and his quiet tribute to the friend who built the Tatra 77. Like this episode, comment on which car you'd like to see next, and subscribe to the "Forgotten Cars | Legends of the Automotive Industry" channel to avoid new episodes.