Wing Windows

Evolution is strange… thinking back about how things we use today have “evolved” over the years is both interesting and sometimes confusing. Sometimes you wonder why some things stay and some things go.

Aluminum siding kind of evolved into vinyl siding and eight-track players kind of evolved into CDs and then maybe into MP-3 players. And then some things didn’t evolve, they just went away. I’ve had a car almost since I was old enough to have a drivers license. Thinking about the cars I’ve had, white-wall tires have just gone away. So have chrome bumpers. You rarely see whip antennas, curb-feelers, fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror or those knobs that used to be on steering wheels.

The other day Claire mentioned that cars don’t have wing windows anymore. I’m not sure “wing window” is the correct term but that’s what we called them. In case you’re too young to remember, cars used to have small, triangular windows in front of the driver and passenger windows. These vent windows could be unlocked and then angled outward so they would catch the wind and blow it directly onto your face, or some part of your body that needed cooling by fresh air.

Why these little windows went away isn’t totally clear to me, but I suspect it has to do with air conditioning. Before air conditioning, the little windows were almost the only way to get air to circulate when it was raining (without getting the driver or passengers soaked.) Almost every car today has air conditioning, but that’s a fairly recent thing. And — cars are being made more aerodynamic today, partly because of the need to meet fuel milage standards required by the government.

I remember these windows being fairly easy to open, so it probably made cars easier to break into and when you pushed one of these windows out, it was perpendicular to the car and it funneled in fresh air, but also bugs, including stinging insects. That probably contributed to accidents because of drivers swatting and swerving because of the bugs. Some of the cars had crank-out wing or vent windows, but most versions merely pushed out.

Anyhow, I suspect that wing windows went away as a result of air-conditioning and aerodynamics. I’ve read that cars are actually more fuel-efficient with all their windows closed and the air conditioner on — even when you factor in the energy used to power the air conditioner. Also, when it became easier to produce more complex curved glass shapes it allowed manufacturers to do away with more of those drag-inducing surfaces and surface variations. Sometimes I still think it would be nice to open one of those little triangle windows instead of running the air-conditioner.
They say that evolution is all about looking forward — in this case, just not through those wing windows…
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