I saw this on Gizmag. 126mph with nothing but a 30mph wind. Link here.
March 29, 2009 With a wind speed of just 30mph (48kmh), British engineer Richard Jenkins has set a new land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle at blistering 126.1mph. Driving the Ecotricity sponsored all carbon fiber land yacht Greenbird across the Ivanpah dry lake bed on the Nevada / California border Jenkins eclipsed the previous benchmark set a decade ago by American Bob Schumacher by almost 10 mph. It also continued a the rivalry between Britain and the United States for setting speed records that dates to the 1920s, when Sir Malcolm Campbell set several records on land and sea.
Greenbird Land Craft
Greenbird
The Greenbird team were on stand-by in September 2008 at Lake Lefroy in Western Australia but were unable to run due to unseasonal rain. Jenkins has been chasing his dream of setting the record for 10 years and Greenbird is the fifth version of of the land yacht Jenkins originally called Windjet but renamed in a nod to Bluebird, the record-setting racers Britain’s Donal Campbell drove in the 1950s and ’60s.
The Greenbird is a 600 kg carbon fiber composite vehicle that uses wind (and nothing else) for power. The only steel in the vehicle is the wheel bearings and bearings used to make the vehicle steerable. The land yacht is a very high performance sailboat that uses a solid wing, rather than a sail, to generate movement. The aerodynamic design and light weight allows the vehicle to achieve speeds three to five times faster than the wind speed thanks to a phenomenon known as ‘apparent wind’.
For an example of apparent wind, imagine you are riding your bicycle on a completely calm day with no wind. You can feel wind on your face and it feels stronger as you pedal faster. That is because as you move forward, the motion creates its own wind. Now imagine you are riding your bicycle but there is a strong breeze coming at you from the right. This natural wind is called “true wind”. When you add this side wind to the cycle ride, the wind the rider feels is now somewhere between the true wind (from the side) and the man made wind (from ahead). This resultant wind is know as the ‘apparent wind’ and will have a speed and apparent wind angle, measured from the direction of travel to the apparent wind angle.
Iron Duck, the previous record holder driven by American Bob Schumacher was a similar design and the record was set at the same location. The primary difference between the two is that where Greenbird is all carbon fiber the Iron Duck was steel framed with foam and fibreglass fairings.
Richard Jenkins also has an ice version of the Greenbird so the next challenge is to settle the debate about whether traveling on ice or land will be faster.
I wonder if and airplane could be build on those principals, or if the friction of the wheels is necessary for the forward velocity.
Made it out to Swan Falls over the weekend. Mark, Bruce, Greg, Rob, and Blaine were all there. We initially met at the Melba flying site, but it was much too light to fly there, so we headed over to Swan Falls to fly the SE launch. The day started out light but it turned on enough so that all the paraglider pilots got about 45 minutes to an hour of flying in.
I followed Mark off the hill and took a quick 3-5 minute sled right to the bottom. Bruce launched behind me and flew for quite a while. I made it back to the top in time to get his landing recorded:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvNwbtzI6iE[/youtube]
Greg was kind enough to take some images of me while I was flying.
Based on the very popular STOL CH 701 design from Chris Heintz that was first introduced more than twenty years ago, the all new STOL CH 750 design incorporates all of the 701’s amazing short-field capabilities, while maximizing cabin size and load carrying capability allowed under the FAA’s new Sport Pilot / Light Sport Aircraft category.
Like the original, the STOL CH 750 aircraft was developed as an “off-airport” short take-off and landing kit aircraft to fulfill the demanding requirements of both sport pilots and first-time builders. Designer Chris Heintz has combined the features and advantages of a “real” airplane with the short-field capabilities of “ultralight” aircraft. The aircraft features fixed leading-edge slats for high lift, full-span flaperons (both ailerons and flaps), an all-flying rudder, and durable all-metal construction.
The only real question left is whether the garage is big enough to build it in or not.
