Uh-oh - blizzard expected this summer: Global cooling?
Winter Storm Warning for One State as 12 Inches of Snow Expected - Newsweek
This is a real fossil dinosaur, not a replica, from Utah, 75 feet long!
LAâs New Green Dinosaur (laist.com)
Interesting for anyone generally interested in science! 
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This dinosaur skeleton is a good reminder of the square/cube scaling laws. How was it possible to have such large land animals, not to mention flying insects with a 2-foot wingspan? Well, one major factor is a much thicker atmosphere than now. More oxygen, easier breathing = larger animals. I think it was something like twice as thick during some portion of the dinosaur era. And CO2 levels were also much higher. If memory serves, the sun was also a bit brighter back then. So, imagine the âgreenhouose effectâ during that time! No wonder ice at the polar caps (called an ice age) is a relatively recent phenomenon! Next time someone tries to tell you the Earth is about to go the way of the next closer planet to tyhe sun (Venus) with their 800 degree Fahrenheit surface temps, let them know that even with twice the atmosphere, higher insolation, and many times the CO2 we have today, Earth was still a comfortable place to live, as long as you didnât end up as dino-lunch!
Amazingly Dumb: Wind is invisible, so people can imagine it doing whatever they wish for:
Here are a couple of examples of hos stupid wannabe wind energy âresearchâ can be. I canât think of a field where most of the âresearchersâ donât have even the most basic understanding of the subject matter, as wannabe âimprovedâ wind energy!
This nonstarter of an idea is an example of how feeble the average human minds are regarding simple fluid dynamics, how much money they can waste on ridiculous concepts, and how stupid others can be, to fund such nonsense.
This next one, I believe I have brought up here recently: Keyword: âGamechangingâ!!!
Game-Changing Research Unlocks New Wind Energy Potential | OilPrice.com
One more misguided and fruitless attempt to ârescueâ the vertical-axis concept:
Anytime you see the word âgamechangerâ in a press-release breakthrough, it is an almost 100% guarantee that you are reading something written by a complete, know-nothing idiot!
Guaranteed to go nowhere, and the last people to understand how stupid it is are the people DOING it!!!
Aeromineâs technology was already discussed on Airborne aeromine. Doug, please can you change your disk? 
That didnât stop some dinosaurs from speaking out against global warming. They were called green dinosaurs. You have just given an illustration of this.
OK I thought for sure this was fake when I first saw it
But this video is very convincing
I think we have a new way to launch a âKiteâ
%$*"(ÂŁing no waaay in hell !! Iâm trying it!!!
Jeroen Breukels:
Inflatable beam simulation
Simulation run of bending behavior of an inflatable tube. Simulation includes linear pre-wrinkling behavior, non-linear post-wrinkling behavior and collapse behavior.
New here, so apologies if random.
Iâve read the thread on Untethered AWES, so not coming into this blind.
I am a pre-seed investor, and trying to understand / assess if untethered AWES makes sense to try for power generation - given battery storage tech is improving.
The thread on here was long - but wanted to ask folks for any specific posts within that / resources you could direct me to to try shape my thoughts better.
Welcome to the forum @AggyAbhishek ,
Yes, but now energy density of Lithium ion batteries is about 200-300 Wh/kg. So they are too heavy for an intensive AWE use.
Metal-Air batteries are studied, and are expected to have a far higher energy density:
But
The development of electrically rechargeable M-Air batteries is an attractive
goal although it has not been fully proven yet.
And untethered AWES for electricity generation are discussed but also not proven yet.
See also Radware Bot Manager Captcha.
Hi @AggyAbhishek ,
Short answer: no.
My opinion:
Untethered AWES are an application of (Dynamic) Soaring
This is required viewing for that: BTD10: The 835kph Sailplane and Dynamic Soaring
Now instead of trying to maximize speed, you want to bleed off some of that speed with rotors to convert into electricity.
Letâs try to make the case for a group developing untethered AWES:
- They have a dynamic soaring glider that is currently breaking records and is quick and cheap to manufacture.
- They are sensing the wind shear at the location, with the glider or a ground station, and are able to update the flight path to take advantage of that.
- They are testing autonomous flight and are only crashing once every ⌠days of continuous operation.
- They have a method to launch and land every ⌠minutes and can discharge the batteries quickly.
- Ideally they are also implementing some swarm logic so they can add more gliders to the system.
- They have the ideal location and niche to deploy the system, on a perpetually windy mountainside, and where other solutions like solar donât make sense.
- They have the people with experience in all of this, especially flight control engineers.
Battery density I donât think is such an important bottleneck. The flight control is the most difficult part I think, if you are only interested in a demonstrator. The other points become more important if you want to make it somewhat economically viable
A good start would be to buy a cheap (foam) dynamic soaring or discuss launch glider and try to fly it autonomously. After theyâve achieved some significant flight time were they avoided crashing the glider, they could start thinking about adding rotors and generators and the rest.
Untethered AWES does not make much sense if you compare it to its closest relative, tethered flygen. Off the top of my head: much fewer suitable and less accessible locations and potentially lower capacity factor at those locations; even more difficult flight control (although you now have no tether, which makes it easier again), as youâre flying closer to the ground and with that have a higher chance of crashing, and you need to sense and take advantage of the wind shear; needing to launch and land continuously, so a lower flight time and a higher risk of crashing; need for ballast (batteries) so more force needed to keep the glider in the air; without the benefit of the tether, you can expose less of your wing to the wind as otherwise you will fly downwind, so a lower energy potential; in a single loop you are only exposed to high winds adding energy to your glider during part of the loop, again lowering your energy potential.
That said, there could always be niches where it does make sense.
Dynamic soaring for other niches also are unlikely, but are a different question: surveying, transportation,âŚ
I think the field is now still in the stage of basic research, which should be done in universities or by interested individuals or rc plane manufacturers. It is an interesting field that is cheap enough to start in though, if you can avoid crashing your plane too much.
That said, investing in someone buying and experimenting with dynamic soaring gliders would have environmental and societal benefits. The skill is transferable to many other fields, most notably AWES if they decide to pivot. And maybe I am wrong and they are able to find a niche or are just able to advance the field in some way. Flight control, without the tether, could also be easier if they at first refrain from flying too low.
I kinda want to share this but unsure what the playground/pub bar room etiquette currently is for loosely linked kite vids
Stacking kites in our favour
Itâs my preference that they donât drown out other topics on the latest page, so Iâd put them mostly in a single topic. Thatâs what I do in my topics. That also allows you to find them easier again later, knowing you put the thing probably in that topic.
This one and the previous one about the kite bike shouldnât really be a separate topic I think because it didnât generate much discussion and didnât really teach us much. They are interesting enough though I think.
The bridge is 494 meters long, weighs 58 tons and is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world. [âŚ] is only 85 cm wide [âŚ]
Could this be an indication of the mass of some rigid elements of an equivalent structure (e.g. a form of full TRPT, or even the rigid kite itself) of an AWES for these dimensions?
About the construction:
[âŚ] transparent construction of steel cable and wire mesh [âŚ]
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A Self-Rotary Aerial Robot With Passive Compliant Variable-Pitch Wings
Inspired by maple seeds, the self-rotary winged aerial robots reflect the advantages of both multi-rotor aircraft and fixed-wing robots. However, their self-rotating speed is related to the takeoff weight, which may affect their application and flight stabilization. To provide a practical and feasible solution, this work proposes a passive compliant variable-pitch mechanism on the self-rotary winged aircraft without requiring extra actuators. Depending on the weight of the payload, the pitching angle of the wings can be passively varied to minimize the increase in the rotating speed and enhance attitude stabilization ability. Besides, an adaptive attitude controller is also designed to address the challenges in attitude stabilization, which are caused by parameter uncertainties and the variable pitching angle. To elaborate on the design and fabrication of the prototype, necessary identification experiments are arranged to find the relationship of pitching angle, thrust generation, power draw, and rotating speed. The experimental findings indicate the proposed robot with optimal pitch angles achieves around 56.8% more power loading than using propellers directly, from 4.4 to 6.9 g/w. The combination of the passive compliant mechanism and adaptive controller improves flight performance from 0.16 to 0.08 meters (mean of absolute translational error).
If a âPassive Compliant Variable-Pitch Wingsâ device could be adapted for a rotary AWES, over-speed would perhaps be mitigated when required.
And also perhaps a single central long cable with springs at each rotor would allow to vary the pitch of stacked rotors for TRPT installations, saving numerous actuators, provided that the wind blows in approximately the same direction on all the rotors. In this eventuality the height of such a device could be higher, even without immediate limit.
Otherwise, a fly-gen passive-pitch rotor of this type might be easier to build and implement.
Without forgetting a rotor in pumping mode.
Passive pitch WES turbine
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Hi Doug, this looks like a good article.
Some key points:
BY NICOLA JONES ⢠FEBRUARY 23, 2022
âThe first farms are in the best spots, and the best spots are limited,â says Cristina Archer
It sounds simple, and the power generation system is pretty standard. But Stephan Brabeck, the chief technology officer at SkySails, says it took the team around 7 years to perfect the flying software, particularly so the wing can safely land and launch autonomously. They have now made and sold five units, Brabeck says, with the one in Mauritius the first to get up and running. They reckon that the wing will have to land some 14 times a year because of heavy rain, unsuitable winds, or thunderstorms.
14 takeoffs and landings per year, itâs really not much.
âThey have now made and sold five unitsâ: it is a real step.
The sails are less intrusive on the skyline than traditional turbines and quieter too, says Brabeck. And they make economic sense, he says, for anyone currently paying more than 30 cents per kilowatt hour from diesel generators. But there are challenges. Wind turbines can kill or wound migrating birds, and how birds will react to these kites âhasnât yet been very well studied,â says Fagiano. SkySails has studies underway. The tether on any such system, notes Archer, could theoretically trip up drones or even small aircraft. And if a tether breaks or guidance system fails, a system can crash to the ground.
That might not be a big deal for a soft wing, but other companies are pursuing rigid wings more like a hang glider than a paraglider. These can be more efficient and have better control, but crashes can be a bigger issue, making them a better bet for offshore use. âEssentially, they are aircraft,â says Fagiano. âThey will have to reach a level of reliability close to civil airplanes.â
A third, more ambitious option is to make a hard-winged drone that has heavy wind turbines and generators on board and sends the electricity down the tether. This option would produce more consistent energy (without needing to cycle between energy production and energy expenditure), but itâs a hard nut to crack.
SkySails plans to test the concept of an airborne wind farm in the American Midwest before they move offshore. âYou need a lot of space,â says Brabeck.
Hi Pierre: Remember, this article is two and a half years old. Donât mean to be redundant, but we havenât seen any indication that this unit in Mauritius is in regular operation, or ever was, nor that any other such supposed unit is installed or operating anywhere. If they were, wouldnât you think someone would be proud and excited enough to publicize it?
Hi Doug, at least the intention is (was) there. If there were problems, what would they be? Reeling? Wear? Control ? Use of space? Other?
Hi Doug, your debunking is relevant as always, which is saying something given the multitude of debunking comments.
This would give even more value when you announce that something which might work, for example in the AWE domain.
It would be refreshing to see any article saying something âmight workâ or even just that âthe company states it will workâ, so the authors of the article are not liars when it doesnât work. Plenty of AWE people constantly announcing things that âwill definitelyâ work - except they never do⌠Itâs an airborne version of The La Brea Tar Pits. I canât think of another field (religion?) where basically nothing anyone says in it ever comes true, ever.
I think at this point you can categorically state that any AWE proclamation of future success is in error, and of course there is never any accurate statement of past success - hmmm, maybe the answer is some sort of time reversal machine! Something for AWE people to look into I guess. )