5 Cars Gone AIRBONE Videos (But Why?)

 

Vehicles that run at high speeds often encounter control problems because, at high speeds, the increased airflow creates too car lift, which can be especially dangerous when the vehicle makes a turn or when it goes for a steep section of the road, as this can make it fly off the road and lose control.

To put in simple terms. A car is shaped like an airfoil (like a wing of a bird or plane). As the car accelerates the air moves faster around it and you get a vertical force that lifts it from the ground. As the uplifting force increases, it reaches a point where the force of gravitation gets negated and the tip of the car gets lifted up. Now the moving air gets blocked in front of it and instead of moving around it and air pressure increases. It pushes against the (rising) bottom of the car.

Practically any shape will fly once there's enough angle of attack and forward speed, whether it's wing-shaped or not. What went wrong here especially in the above screenshot is some combination of a poorly-designed rear wing and the various other torques acting on the car got the front end up a little-- and once it's angled up, it's going up.