Why non-crosswind type is not popular?

[PierreB]

Welcome @mingaero ,

Indeed Sky WindPower is classed in rotational AWES with electricity generation on the flying device, classification on Figure 2 page 3 on the pdf (Electricity in the air: Insights from two decades of advanced control research and experimental flight testing of airborne wind energy systems) on the link on the message below:

"Flight Stability of Rigid Wing Airborne Wind Energy Systems"

Hi @PierreB the paper in question now refers to the AWES classification scheme (Fig. 2) in the review paper that I co-authored with many other researchers: Electricity in the air.pdf (7.2 MB). I will provide a more detailed response to the remarks of @Rodread in short.

For now it looks like crosswind devices produced more electricity during experimental tests:

"Autonomous Airborne Wind Energy systems: accomplishments and challenges"

Authors: Lorenzo Fagiano, Manfred Quack, Florian Bauer, Lode Carnel, and Espen Oland Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems 2022 5:1 An interesting publication comprising features and reports of tests from different AWE architectures and companies. The figure 15 is particularly significant. Below is a pre-print:

Figure 15: average 92 kW, 12 m/s wind speed.