New Speed Record Set For Wind-Powered Vehicles

Hugh Pickens writes "Richard Jenkins reached 126.1mph in his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada, setting a new world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. 'It's great; it's one of those things that you spend so long trying to do and when it actually happens, it's almost too easy,' says Jenkins. The Greenbird is a carbon fiber composite vehicle that uses wind (and nothing else) for power. The designers describe it as a 'very high performance sailboat,' but one that uses a solid wing, rather than a sail, to generate movement. Due to the shape of the craft, especially at such high speeds, the wings also provide lift; a useful trait for an aircraft, but very hazardous for a car. To compensate for this, the designers have added small wings to 'stick' the car to the ground, in the same way Formula 1 cars do. 'Greenbird weighs 600kg when it's standing still,' says Jenkins. 'But at speed, the effect of the wings make her weigh just over a ton.' Jenkins has also built a wind-powered craft that travels on ice, rather than land. 'Now that we've broken the record, I'm going back on to the ice craft. There's still some debate as to whether traveling on ice or land will be faster.'"

Re:OK, where is the nerd part?

[peragrin]

30-40mph with gusts later in the day higher.

though on land it is easier. on water the record is about 64mph in 24mph wind.

okay so i am a sailing geek. I also say this yesterday.

Re:Can't wait for my own...

[cbiltcliffe]

And in Ontario, you'd be able to get your licence suspended for a week, and car impounded, all without burning a drop of gasoline.

Yet, if you pay no attention, drift 10 feet out of your lane, roll your vehicle, and kill two people, you can legally drive away from the accident scene.

Go figure......

The Ice Schooner

[Doc Ruby]

This craft reminds me of the early Michael Moorcock SF story The Ice Schooner [geocities.com]:

Although part of the general repackaging of Moorcock's fantasy output around the Eternal Champion theme, The Ice Schooner is not really that closely linked to the other novels. Having a hero and a quest is not really enough; there are few novels in the genre by any author which would share these common elements.

The much revised novel is set in a future Ice Age, so severe that oceans of ice cover almost the entire surface of the Earth. On these frozen wastes sail great ship-like wind powered sledges, hunting the land whales evolved from the sea creatures of our own time. Konrad Arflane is captain of such a vessel fallen on hard times until he rescues a dying man out on the remote ice. He turns out to be the ruler of an important city, but more relevantly to the plot, he gives Arflane a quest, to find the fabled lost city of New York, a vision, in his daughter, and a ship, a great ice schooner, to captain.

Re:Crap

[tick-tock-atona]

Yeah, well I hate breaking out the calculator (or worse, actually reading TFA) to convert 126.1 mph to something non-archaic. (202.9 km/h)

From wikipedia: "The name statute mile originates from a statute of the Parliament of England in 1592 during the reign of Elizabeth I. This defined the statute mile as 5,280 ft or 1,760 yards; or 63,360 inches. Both statute and international miles are divided into eight furlongs. In turn a furlong is ten chains; a chain is 22 yards and a yard is three feet, making up 5,280 ft."

Seriously, WTF?

wow; impressive

[WindBourne]

growing up, we used to race a DN class iceboat. IceMice could do over 70 mph in a 30 mph wind. This is another 50 mph faster. Tip the craft on dirt, and you will know it.

Re:Here's the math question..

[drinkypoo]

I also wonder if a rigid wing would work well on smaller sailboats. It might help more people use sail for travel where they now use motor launches. I don't think it's going to take over waterskiing any time soon, but that would be cool too.

Sailing faster than the wind

[JoshuaZ]

The physics that allows one to sail faster than the wind aren't completely obvious. Terence Tao wrote a very good explanation of the basics http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/sailing-into-the-wind-or-faster-than-the-wind/ [wordpress.com] where he also shows a nice theoretical construction that allows one to accelerate to any speedy (assuming that the universe is Newtonian).

Re:Here's the math question..

[Yacoby]

A rigid wing would be lethal in a harbor, as you can't take it down easily, and if the wind changed, suddenly you have a boat that is attempting to move and a boom swinging about.

Another large bonus of a fabric sail is that it will flap when my sail isn't set correctly or when I am sailing to much into the wind. A rigid sail wouldn't.

Fabric is lighter, and I assure you, the last thing you want is a lot of weight high up. It makes the boat a lot more likely to roll, and you already have a large surface area that the wind can push.

Re:First Post!!

[conureman]

The CHP clocked me @ 47mph on a Big Wheel. It was downhill, however, and definitely not the record. One of my friends was clocked @ 55 going down Corral Hollow road towards Carnegie. The guy in the car couldn't keep up once they got into the twisties. Its a miracle that we survived our childhoods.