I agree! When Federal designed the Aerodynic, they put the rotating lights in the spots nearest to the speaker and the stationary lights at the outer ends of the bar. This arrangement blocks the rotating lights when viewed from the side and extreme angles of the vehicle. Rotating lights at the ends of the bar provide good coverage from all angles. The AeroTwin put the lighting effectiveness of the TwinSonic into a far more aerodynamic package.
While the aerodynic was very innovative with the synchronized gear-driven reflectors it worked best in a model with no "auxiliary" lights like flashers, takedowns or alleys. This flaw made the bar less useful for police and more useful in cases where the "end options" could be omitted. Once you committed to all rotating reflectors the bar got really interesting, and effective 360 especially at the corners. Numerous patterns could be setup and there was a lot of room to make a very effective bar.
Until center options replacing the speaker became a thing these bars never lived up to their potential for vehicles needing options besides rotators. The center takedowns and (LAPD shop supplied) external alleys were the only was these bars worked well for police. I loved these bars at max length on fire/
ems vehicles not requiring any of the end stationary options.
The thing I always found interesting was "taking a step backwards" in design and putting twinsonic guts into the aerodynic housing made a very different but also effective bar. NYPD found a really simple setup and it lasted for years. Depending on the application you could argue that the design was superior in some cases. While length was limited this model really cut the bar back to the basics needed to operate and removed the interesting but complicated gear system.
Federal Signal would continue putting "different guts" into old housings for years to the point that the aerodynic series had an LED version. The ability to customize lens combos in a large footprint bar was winning setup for years. That said, every time I see an aerotwin posted I watch the video multiple times to see what combination of features, lens color and bulb color are in use; it never fails to interest me.
Enjoy your early Xmas.
