Saturday, March 24, 2012

It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's a truck??

After four days at MATS (we get here a day early for press conferences) – our senior technical editor Paul Abelson says he normally feels like he’s seen it all
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Paul Abelson interviews Bob Sliwa
“By Saturday," says Paul, “we, the collective press corps, have sat through everything from product announcements to full-blown new truck introductions."

But today, going through the show one more time, he saw something really new and different. Maybe not so new, he says, but really different from what we normally see running down the road.

Associate Editor David Tanner heard Paul start to describe the site in the North Wing and decided to tag along.

Paul was talking about the Airflow bullet truck.

The concept truck is a sight to behold with its smooth lines and almost jumbo jet appearance.

Paul and Dave proved to be the perfect pair to get the scoop on the truck parked at the Dynasys booth (the trailer was parked at Papa John’s parking lot) – and on the people who dreamed up the concept and made it reality.

Bob Sliwa talks with Paul Abelson
Back in 1985, a truck driver named Bob Sliwa built an aerodynamic truck. That’s not unusual today, but back before Kenworth introduced the T600 (1986) – trucks were the least aerodynamic vehicles on the road.

Bob ran his truck for a while, then retired to pursue other interests. But he never forgot his dream. In 2008, he began work on his current project, the AirFlow Bullet Truck, the most aerodynamic truck ever pull freight down the highways.

Professor Paul dug into the technical details with Bob while Dave got the scoop on what makes Bob tick and so driven to bring this concept truck into reality.

We won’t spoil the surprise here… but be sure to watch for their reports in the June issue of Land Line Magazine.




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