A picture study on early racing car wings.

The following images show a variety of products or devices encountered in everyday life and what sort of loading they experience.

Lotus 49, Graham Hill, 1968 : Autosport International, 12th January 2009, G Thomson

This car shows an early version of the now common racing car rear wing. The wing is supported by two struts and as the wing operates a downward pressure is exerted on the wing and struts. The struts will therefore experience compressive loading. As long slender members they will also be vulnerable to buckling. In addition to simple compressive failure, drag on the wing will also exert a backward force putting an additional bending load on the struts.

The designers of these aerodynamic devices often struggled to make these wing supports strong enough and this resulted in sudden and dangerous failure. As a result the very real danger of such failings, high wings were banned.