this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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"Giant kites" (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world to c/funny@lemmy.world
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[–] Supervivens@lemmy.world 61 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

“What differentiates it from other wind solutions,” says Bernatets, “is that the wing is not just pulled by the wind and countered by the ship.” Instead, it flies in figure-of-eight loops, which multiply the pulling effect of the airflow to give what he calls “crazy power.”

“Plus, we fetch the wind 300 meters above the sea surface, where it’s 50% more powerful,” adds Bernatets. The combination “explains why the power is tremendous for a system that is very compact, simple on the bow of the ship, and can be retrofitted on any ship, not just new ships,” he says.

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 9 points 10 months ago

The retrofitting part is great news

[–] grue@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

“What differentiates it from other wind solutions,” says Bernatets, “is that the wing is not just pulled by the wind and countered by the ship.” Instead, it flies in figure-of-eight loops, which multiply the pulling effect of the airflow to give what he calls “crazy power.”

That's an innovation over square-rigged ships, sure, but not so much over fore-and-aft-rigged ones (where the sails act like aerofoils).

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

A 300m line holding turbulent ~~sail~~ kite would never have the chance getting tangled or snapping and killing someone when it whips back

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 10 points 10 months ago

Sitting in a metal tube in the sky sounds just as dangerous, yet here we are.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah there's similar problems for the ropes that anchors are attached to as well, so they shouldn't be using those either.

[–] EtherWhack@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The chain for the anchor can be much heavier as it doesn't have to be suspended by something flying in the wind when being drawn out. The water also acts as a shock absorber (as do the individual links) if the chain were to break.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

What about mooring lines? They snap too.

The point is that people working on ships already know how to take precautions around lines that can break with enough force to kill a person. They establish zones on the ship that people can't be in when the lines are being used. This is a very old problem that was solved a long time ago.