Wind-Powered "Greenbird" Seeks Land-Speed Record

Mike writes with this tantalizing excerpt: "Dale Vince of Ecotricity and engineer Richard Jenkins are setting up on the salt flats at Lake LeFroy in Western Australia, hoping to catch the right breeze and break the wind-powered landspeed record of 116.7 mph in their sleek wind-powered vehicle, the Greenbird."

Re:3-5 times actual wind speed?

[BitterOldGUy]

Well, if you've ever seen the Coyote and Road Runner Cartoons, you'll know that the crew on the boat blows really hard into the sail, thereby creating a much larger velocity associated with the relative wind, increasing the "lift" of the sails and thereby propelling the craft faster than the wind. Now, if you place a large amount of ACME TNT behind the craft, the crew, out of shear terror, will blow even harder and thereby adding a few more knots to said velocity of the craft.

Re:3-5 times actual wind speed?

[eln]

They use a rocket engine. The fuel was derived from oil, which used to be dinosaurs. The dinosaurs used the wind (or "air") to breath, and the plants (and other dinosaurs) they used for fuel also used the wind in a similar fashion. Thus, the vehicle is technically powered by wind.

See? This green stuff is easy if you just put a little thought into it.

How does it go?

[dontPanik]

It doesn't have a sail. How does it go?
Someone tell me how stupid I am.