I «read» the paper today. It is a bit heavy reading. Anyways: I dont think we should use every convention from windmills same as we should not use every convention from aeroplanes.
I dont believe the induction factor a is the most useful approach for AWE. Sure, for a windmill, the swept area is kind of fixed, and finding the best induction factor could make a big difference in overall performance.
For AWE, we must assume that the benefits of less materials and higher altitudes will counteract the issue of very low induction factors.
So I dont agree in the shift from power to induction factor. At least from a yoyo single kite point of view.
I am also not sure if assuming crosswind/downwind is a good idea. Looking eg at the recent Makani videos, elevation angle and loop radius are quite huge. Not taking this into account might make the results less relevant, I don’t know.
Also I don’t see much of a difference in this paper and the other paper I was reading a few weeks back. Aerodynamic performance and power limit of crosswind kite systems