Each architecture and operating environment has particular launch requirements.
Altitude, launch speed, wind speed, weather, permission and more requirements have to be satisfied for every working case.
Automation of deployment and recovery has often been stated as key to utility deployments (There are human employment and oversight arguments against this requirement)
This vertical spud gun type launch tube method worked for the small rigid architecture. Certainly didn’t land that way though…
The skysails mast launch, which automatically unpacks, inflates, launches then captures, deflates and stows a soft kite … is so impressive.
In terms of launching kite turbine networks (Daisy kites - my favourite kinda architecture) The launching of the turbine network itself is not so important as the launching of the lifting kite. The kite network can either get hoisted up a pre-established tense flying lifting line or the kite network is first stretched out then allowed to be pulled up by its top (Current method). The lifting kite however is a different matter… I don’t need the lifter to fly at a high angle, I just want plenty of line tension so that torque can be reliably transmitted down the stack of rings.
In this post on lifter kites Can you share your experience with your lifters? @tallakt likes a high angle on his lifting kites.
Because a Daisy turbine uses the lifting line as its axis, too high a lifting line angle means huge cosine losses… so yep I just want plenty of tension, and a low lift angle.
This means a lifter suitable for a Daisy kite turbine might well be a small Makani type kite as seen launched in the video above. Have it loop powerfully all day at around 30deg elevation generating enough to keep it controlled with spare to land neatly… sweet.
As it is, I’m super cheap (don’t need a space-pen when you have a pencil) the high lifting angle of the sssl is not a problem. I limit the maximum turbine stack elevation with a back-stop line, safer this way too…
Back to how this affects launching an sssl … I’d love to automate this without adding parasitic weight to the sssl there are a bunch of ways a drone could be employed to unstow, release, recapture and stow a soft kite.
Here’s where I show a couple dodgy video experiments…