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Wombat · 01-17-2006, 05:30 PM

A few years ago I saw a design for a giant flying one of these. It would fly like a kite, with the powerline doubling as the string to hold the kite in place. It had a generator/motor at each end of the axis. To get it up in the air, power was fed to it and the motors turned it and it flew itself up. Once it was at maximum altitude (really high, in the jet-stream) it would then get turned by the wind and the motors would become generators and it would send power back down to the ground. It could stay up for days or weeks at a time because the wind in the jet-stream is fast and steady. It would only need to be winched back down to ground if a storm was approaching (the generators could be made to work as motors again to power a safe landing).

01-17-2006, 05:30 PM	#10
Wombat (marsupial with backward-facing pouch) Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Canberra Posts: 251	A few years ago I saw a design for a giant flying one of these. It would fly like a kite, with the powerline doubling as the string to hold the kite in place. It had a generator/motor at each end of the axis. To get it up in the air, power was fed to it and the motors turned it and it flew itself up. Once it was at maximum altitude (really high, in the jet-stream) it would then get turned by the wind and the motors would become generators and it would send power back down to the ground. It could stay up for days or weeks at a time because the wind in the jet-stream is fast and steady. It would only need to be winched back down to ground if a storm was approaching (the generators could be made to work as motors again to power a safe landing). __________________ If you don't do it properly, you'll get to the pub sooner.