{{Short description|Romanian engineer and inventor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} thumb|270px|Aurel Persu on a 2010 Romanian stamp thumb|right|270px|Aurel Persu automobile
'''Aurel Persu''' (26 December 1890 – 5 May 1977) was a Romanian engineer and pioneer car designer, the first to place the wheels inside the body of the car as part of his attempt to reach the perfect aerodynamic shape for automobiles.<ref name=ROpatent>{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20050413192010/http://www.osim.ro/web/ca/persu.htm Aurel Persu]. Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks</ref><ref name=EurPatOff>{{cite web |title= Streamline power vehicle |publisher= European Patent Office |url= http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=1648505&KC=&FT=E }}</ref> He came to the conclusion that the perfectly aerodynamic automobile must have the shape of a falling water drop,<ref name=ROpatent/> taking it one step further toward that shape than the car Austrian Edmund Rumpler had presented in Berlin in 1921.
==Patented aerodynamic design== Persu, a specialist in airplanes aerodynamics and dynamics, implemented his idea in 1922–1923 in Berlin, building an automobile with an incredibly low drag coefficient of 0.28 (same as a modern Porsche Carrera) or even 0.22 (still rare among modern production cars<ref>{{cite web | url=https://memeburn.com/motorburn/2014/01/12-of-the-most-aerodynamic-cars-in-production-right-now/ | title=12 of the most aerodynamic cars in production right now | date=14 January 2014 }}</ref>), depending on the source{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}. This drag coefficient was far better that the 0.8–1.0 common with automobiles used at that time. This allowed for the fuel consumption to decrease{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}. It was the first car to have the wheels inside its aerodynamic line, which we take for granted today. This was Persu's main innovation compared to the 1921 Rumpler Tropfenwagen ("drop car") of Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. Persu's design received German patent number 402683 in 1924<ref>[http://autoturism.rdslink.ro/gbist.htm ''Romanian Automotive Premieres'']. Autoturism.rdslink.ro. Retrieved on 28 July 2014.</ref> and US patent 1648505 in 1927.<ref>Persu, A. (1927) "Streamline power vehicle" {{US Patent|1648505}}</ref>
==Technical museum== The original automobile ran for {{convert|120,000|km|mi}}. Aurel Persu donated it fully functional in 1961 to the Dimitrie Leonida Technical Museum in Bucharest<ref>[http://www.cimec.ro/muzee/mteh/mteh_eng.htm The Technical Museum "Dimitrie Leonida"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109104859/http://www.cimec.ro/muzee/mteh/mteh_eng.htm |date=9 November 2005 }}. Cimec.ro</ref> where it has since been on display.
==Derivative car designs== The original design work of Aurel Persu inspired future iconic American car designs:{{dubious|Did it? So many other developments by others, Rumpler before him and several after. W/o source just an empty claim.|date= May 2021}} * Aptera{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}{{dubious|Was it? 40 years later? W/o source just an empty claim.|date= May 2021}} * Dymaxion car, designed by Buckminster Fuller{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}{{dubious|Was it? 10 years later? W/o source just an empty claim.|date= May 2021}}
==See also== *Streamliner: Automobiles – for overview of early aerodynamic automobiles
;Other early "teardrop" cars, chronologically: *Rumpler Tropfenwagen (1921), first aerodynamic "teardrop" car to be designed and serially produced (about 100 units built) *Stout Scarab (1932–35, 1946), US *Dymaxion car (1933), US *Schlörwagen (1939), German prototype, never produced
==Notes and references== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US1648505&F=0 ''Streamline Power Vehicle'' United States Patent US1648505]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Persu, Aurel}} Category:20th-century Romanian engineers Category:20th-century Romanian inventors Category:1977 deaths Category:1890 births