Messages in AirborneWindEnergy group.                          AWES 23075 to 23125 Page 354 of 440.
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23075 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: Collective spring-mass provision in metamaterial AWES design

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23076 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: KPS's new Glasgow HQ

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23077 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: eWind Solutions news

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23078 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: Collective spring-mass provision in metamaterial AWES design

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23079 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: High Turn Rate for high power-kite performance

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23081 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/6/2017
Subject: Re: A bounty of new work- AWEC2017 Book of Abstracts

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23082 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Makani's second M600 video

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23083 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23084 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23085 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23086 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23087 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23088 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23089 From: dave santos Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Re: Makani's second M600 video

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23090 From: dave santos Date: 10/9/2017
Subject: Space Fountain Lift Method

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23091 From: dave santos Date: 10/10/2017
Subject: Metafluid Dynamics of Kite Farms suggest Metafield Theory

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23092 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
Subject: Networked Kites and associated Pilot-Wave Field as a single Metafiel

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23093 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
Subject: Lessons from Vintage Rogallo Kites

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23094 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
Subject: Re: Lessons from Vintage Rogallo Kites

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23095 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
Subject: Non-twisting Kite Rotation without Swivels?

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23096 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
Subject: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimality

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23097 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/12/2017
Subject: Re: Minesto news

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23098 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/12/2017
Subject: Re: Minesto news

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23099 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
Subject: KPS undertakes AWES Powerkite Bird Compatability Validation

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23100 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
Subject: Public Awareness of AWE tracked to its tipping point

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23101 From: dave santos Date: 10/13/2017
Subject: Fort Felker's version of AWE as a New-Born Baby

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23102 From: dave santos Date: 10/13/2017
Subject: AWEC2017 Wrap-up

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23103 From: Olivier Normand Date: 10/14/2017
Subject: Quick video from kitewinder

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23104 From: Pierre BENHAIEM Date: 10/16/2017
Subject: Re: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimalit

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23105 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/16/2017
Subject: Saudi Arabia wind for AWE

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23106 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
Subject: Gottlob Espenlaub

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23107 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23108 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23109 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23110 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
Subject: Aero towing

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23111 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/19/2017
Subject: Wolfgang Schimmelpfenning

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23112 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/19/2017
Subject: Process lines into proper channels

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23113 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/20/2017
Subject: Makani in X with US lobbyists?

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23114 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/20/2017
Subject: Ground-based constant-length-line powered truck-tow of manned wing

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23115 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
Subject: Re: Ground-based constant-length-line powered truck-tow of manned wi

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23116 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
Subject: Re: Makani in X with US lobbyists?

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23117 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23118 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
Subject: Re: Process lines into proper channels

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23119 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
Subject: Re: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimalit

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23120 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/23/2017
Subject: Leaving a free-flight kite system to kite-glide

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23121 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
Subject: Growing Safety Gaps in AWE R&D

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23122 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
Subject: Re: ftero Airborne Wind Energy

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23123 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
Subject: Aertotecture safety practices enhancement by arborist self-rescue

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23124 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/25/2017
Subject: Johannes Oehler and his AWE flow

Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23125 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/26/2017
Subject: Subsea cable matters



Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23075 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: Collective spring-mass provision in metamaterial AWES design
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23076 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: KPS's new Glasgow HQ

http://www.cargillproperty.com/103westregentst.pdf


4,127 sq. ft. for full townhouse

Parking: 5 spaces

Floors: 3

Reception room

Board room/meetings
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23077 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: eWind Solutions news
Clarification:  eWind  has not avoided my own "local open-source kite expertise", since I have reached out many times over several years, and have fully posed my technical opinions to them, and on the AWES Forum. The "avoidance" cited is eWind's willful strategy not to freely invite the larger NW kite expert community to advise them, including WSIKF, WKM, and Columbia-Gorge/Hood-River expert circles, even though eWind tests nearby, at the same legendary kite-talented coast and river valley. 

The level of concern is serious in proportion to the public funding only, but not a specific objection to ambitious claims made by many AWES developers, including commercial puffery funded by qualified private investors. Concerns are not personal, but directed to the specific ideas and practices critiqued. eWind folks surely have tried hard to succeed, with lots of gov funding, if not by seeking lots of help from their local world-class kite community.




 

eWind has been technically limited by its insular "not-invented-here" AWE engineering culture, including haughty avoidance of local open-source kite expertise in the US NW. They have instead seemed more focused on venture promotion and public (USDA) funding. Its near time for them to duly reveal their AWES deliverable, which may fall very short of practical value in the remote small-scale AWES app space, compared to the crowd of more open team efforts worldwide. Good Luck to them in not having wasted public funds, and successfully delivering what they have claimed.

On ‎Wednesday‎, ‎October‎ ‎4‎, ‎2017‎ ‎11‎:‎34‎:‎29‎ ‎PM‎ ‎CDT, joefaust333@gmail.com [AirborneWindEnergy] <AirborneWindEnergy@yahoogroups.com                    


 

Social Impact finalists named for Bend Venture Conference (BVC)


One of the four finalists:

" eWind Solutions, of Beaverton, a renewable airborne wind energy company utilizing a rigid wing kite to produce energy."
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23078 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: Re: Collective spring-mass provision in metamaterial AWES design
JoeF makes a very subtle "tease" here, so here are some helpful clues-

Carefully note that surface waves (aka gravity waves*) in water are inertial-elastic, while the water bulk itself is relatively incompressible. The analogy is oriented upside-down, and wind-like flow is best interpreted under Galilean Relativity. Keep in mind that gravity is a spring-like force in many physical systems. For example, a classic pendulum bob in gravity moves much like a double-sprung mass in weightless space.
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23079 From: dave santos Date: 10/5/2017
Subject: High Turn Rate for high power-kite performance
A few years ago kite surfers identified kite high turn rate as a critical competitive edge, particularly in gnarly dynamic freestyle conditions. For decades, performance soaring has understood tight turning in thermals as desirable. As kitesurfing and soaring are energy-driven, we study every such anecdotal heuristic in AWE, sooner or later. This is a belated start at analysis of Power-Kite High Turn Rate in our AWES context.

Power-kite tight turn capability seeks to maintain high velocity out of the turn. Better-kite can thus zip back and forth across the power-zone of the kite-window, at highest extraction capacity, while not-so-good-kite burbles the turns. Two familiar factors are especially key to high kite turn rate; low inertial mass, and high L/D. Large rigid empennage rudders are not very scalable, as cubic mass. No potentially superior rigid wing is COTS nor TRL9 but mature power-kite parafoils are well-proven WECS in ordinary (most probable) winds, achieving high L/D (
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23081 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/6/2017
Subject: Re: A bounty of new work- AWEC2017 Book of Abstracts

List all where individual abstracts may be viewed:

LINK
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23082 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Makani's second M600 video
Lots of fresh detail to parse. Not quite a true all-modes session, since no reeling perch is used, but an M600 prototype manages to fly over half an hour and land. It looks like a second M600 unit; the first still guessed to have at least cracked-up due to its abridged video. There is more wind this session and a lot of noise, and much dust kicked up in low-altitude hover.

The team probably now has a clear idea if generation capacity (cut-in, phase, etc) targets can be met, and if an affordable and reliable AWES technology is being validated or not. Its quite an accomplishment, even if not ultimately practical compared to other AWES architectures.
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23083 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake
New video evidence and satellite imagery confirms Makani is M600 testing about five miles west of the China Lake Naval Air Base. There are civilian activities (small towns, Ag, Hwys) in the area, so it should be possible to get local eyewitness accounts to fill in missing details like number of tests, crashes, etc.
Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23084 From: dave santos Date: 10/8/2017
Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake
Attachments :
    Attached satellite image of test site at China Lake; the white stripe at center is the tarp that the tether lays on, and the perch is to the right.



     

    New video evidence and satellite imagery confirms Makani is M600 testing about five miles west of the China Lake Naval Air Base. There are civilian activities (small towns, Ag, Hwys) in the area, so it should be possible to get local eyewitness accounts to fill in missing details like number of tests, crashes, etc.
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23085 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake
    35°42'28.8"N 117°47'32.2"W
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23086 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23087 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake

    Site is less than 5 mi from an airport (Inyokern Airport); hence, approvals from the airports are needed to fly the kite system.

    http://inyokernairport.com/index2.html



    ---In AirborneWindEnergy@yahoogroups.com, <joefaust333@gmail.com
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23088 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Re: Makani M600 Test Site Location Confirmed- China Lake
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23089 From: dave santos Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Re: Makani's second M600 video
    Having studied the new video further, many new M600 details are revealed never before publicly documented, like retractable back-up landing gear. The general impression is that this is a spectacular energy-aviation experiment, but it falls very short of the original M5 (5MW) concept, and probably marks a current scaling limit for marginal capacity by a very complex expensive aerospace technology.

    Note how many unrealistic shortcuts were needed. The M600 tether does not reel yet* and the prototypes probably do not have back-up power nor parachutes, as previously proposed in Makani's circle. Even in its lightened state, we see the M600 struggling in its upward phase in moderate wind in cool conditions. Can it beat hot thin air (~40C), including higher stall speeds of rotors in hover and wings at the bottom of the dive? Are the motors and ESCs running too hot, limiting life-cycle? Can a session-wonder really survive 5yrs to estimated pay-back? Is this not high-maintenance system? Is it too dangerous and noisy to be around populations? Makani does not say, but the answers to such questions must be positive.

    Hurray to GoogleX for doing high-complexity high-mass high-velocity AWES experimentation, which is surely answering these questions, if not in public. Ampyx is next in line to face these scaling and complexity challenges, with groundgen mass advantage, but still very challenged. The large diverse pack of lower-complexity competitors are definitely not too worried about Makani or Ampyx prospects, for all the millions in investment and years of trying. The AWE race is as open and exciting as ever for small developers.

    Scaling laws will next deal with the ambitions of semi-rigid wings, control pods, catapults, and so on, down to pure rag and string flown hard by adventurous "sky sailors". We may soon be left with a spectrum of niches in AWES tech, with nice Makani-like drone systems of about 3m WS, Ampyx-like kite-gliders of maybe 5m, and pumping power kites of various sizes up to 300m2 unit "ship kites" or maybe well beyond. The final remaining AWES mega-scaling path will be kite networks, whose roots go back centuries, and are in development by a few small players who think far bigger than Makani can.

    ========
    * The long take-off hover of the 2nd M600 video likely was intended to simulate a reel-out run-hot phase.


     

    Lots of fresh detail to parse. Not quite a true all-modes session, since no reeling perch is used, but an M600 prototype manages to fly over half an hour and land. It looks like a second M600 unit; the first still guessed to have at least cracked-up due to its abridged video. There is more wind this session and a lot of noise, and much dust kicked up in low-altitude hover.

    The team probably now has a clear idea if generation capacity (cut-in, phase, etc) targets can be met, and if an affordable and reliable AWES technology is being validated or not. Its quite an accomplishment, even if not ultimately practical compared to other AWES architectures.
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23090 From: dave santos Date: 10/9/2017
    Subject: Space Fountain Lift Method
    We know several ways to maintain kite lift in calm, like LTA, step-towing, or conductive tethered drones. Here is another idea we have thought about in various guises, of using kinetic projectile mass to keep a platform up, called a Space Fountain. There are many related concepts, like a pressure hose to altitude driving jet reaction, or string loop "shooters". Aerodrag is a moderate parasitic factor, but the gravity well energy is strongly conserved. How far can this tech go, and how?

    Space fountains are a rather simple concept space at heart. Some designs will rely on ballistic precision, perhaps by active guidance. Upward fired mass must hit the sustained mass just right and return home for refiring, unless perhaps used aloft for cloud-seeding or the like. Spent projectile mass aloft still has the potential energy of its height, which could be recouped for higher efficiency, perhaps by conserving return momentum by the surface drive mechanism or a RAT/battery IFO projectile that returns charged.

    A typical rifle bullet can reach 3km high, so a stream of them could maintain a suitable mass somewhat lower. A tungsten chain loop could probably be continuously shot
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23091 From: dave santos Date: 10/10/2017
    Subject: Metafluid Dynamics of Kite Farms suggest Metafield Theory
    Its the old resurgent controversy between Pilot-Wave and Copenhagen QM, but this time in the form of Metafluid theory, named as such in scientific conferences of the 90's, as the engineered Metamaterials paradigm also emerged.

    In the AWE case, both pilot-wave *Metafield* ideas apply. Kite farm kite-matter is ideally identified as a metamaterial embedded with its ghostly metafluid aura of wind-field wakes and far-field pressure distributions. Once again, note the networked kite's applicability to advanced theoretic physics. The emergent idea of a complex hybrid metafield may be novel (no quick search hit), and if so, its thanks to kites and wind. 
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23092 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
    Subject: Networked Kites and associated Pilot-Wave Field as a single Metafiel
    Clarifying that a kite network is a special kind of physical field, and its associated pilot-wave field as well.Independently defined metafluid theory applies to our wind dynamics just as metamaterial theory applies to our kitematter. What is newly proposed conceptually is a Metafield Theory composed of both fields coherently superposed.

    Classic two-slit experiments in particle/wave physics can be freshly interpreted as two superposed fields. There is the wave field contained in the two-slit "box", and the box itself is a physical field unit much like a unit-kite. The two superposed fields interacting create the characteristic physics. This interpretation is a natural extension of early pilot-wave conception into a richer field theory of networked field cells, where the pilot-wave/particle distinction gives way to an equivalence between the two objects, including by time-reversed causality.

    Expecting objections that this sort of abstract thinking is a distraction from the practical work of engineering AWES, the truth is that new ways of understanding "dancing kites" suggest specific new ways of engineering networked kite metamaterials, much as QM advanced semiconductor engineering. Time will tell if AWES design proceeds by similar theoretic driving.
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23093 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
    Subject: Lessons from Vintage Rogallo Kites
    Thanks to Vic, an SS kite experimenter, for this link to a nice slideshow of vintage Rogallo wing tech. Delta and diamond kites continue to offer design opportunities due to good performance and fundamental simplicity. Sparless versions in high-count crosslinked networks are just one major direction such wings can further develop. We count Bell's sparred cellular kite unit cell as a close ancestral form, but deltas and diamonds are in fact very ancient kite forms Rogallo brilliantly distilled in our time into an Space Age object-
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23094 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
    Subject: Re: Lessons from Vintage Rogallo Kites
    Another link from Vic, revealing a historic trove of Rogallo artifacts and documentation in progress-









     

    Thanks to Vic, an SS kite experimenter, for this link to a nice slideshow of vintage Rogallo wing tech. Delta and diamond kites continue to offer design opportunities due to good performance and fundamental simplicity. Sparless versions in high-count crosslinked networks are just one major direction such wings can further develop. We count Bell's sparred cellular kite unit cell as a close ancestral form, but deltas and diamonds are in fact very ancient kite forms Rogallo brilliantly distilled in our time into an Space Age object-
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23095 From: dave santos Date: 10/11/2017
    Subject: Non-twisting Kite Rotation without Swivels?
    Could non-twisting turbine rotation be possible without rotary slip couplings? This mind-bending geometric motion case suggests so. What a fine oddity such a demo freak-turbine would be, and could lead to practical use-
    Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23096 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
    Subject: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimality
    Attachments :
      On page 29 of the AWEC2017 Book of Abstracts the graphic shows a figure-8 crosswind flight pattern with embedded short-stroke pumping recovery during climb phases, captioned as a "typical optimal pattern". This concept of "short-stroke"* pumping for eights or loops was early-identified by KiteLab [AWES Forum], elaborated over many posts, but represents a major departure for the Northern EU folks, where multiple patterns flown during an extended "long-stroke" reel-out phase, with proportionally extended reel-in phase, were instead claimed optimal [Springer AWE book].

      Short stroke pumping eights and loops offer advantages of conserved airspace, limited tether wear by a short chaff-resistant section, and higher-frequency power cycling; and apply to ordinary COTS power kites, not just the Ampyx rigid wing example. This concept is claimed under the Open-AWE_IP-Cloud framework, and is available for licensing.
      ----------
      * KiteLab nomenclature

      Inline image
      		   @@attachment@@
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23097 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/12/2017
      Subject: Re: Minesto news
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23098 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/12/2017
      Subject: Re: Minesto news

      For emplacements in constant ocean currents:


      Minesto says LCOE below EUR 50/MWh possible for kite turbine
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23099 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
      Subject: KPS undertakes AWES Powerkite Bird Compatability Validation
      Risk will be moderate. Birds do hit kite lines, usually without harm, but not without danger. Sense and avoid should be practiced with actively supervised prototypes. Mishaps should be publicly logged. In this case, an ornithologist is retained on site. Good due diligence.

      This study will not validate high velocity rigid wing AWES, which will be more challenged not to kill birds.
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23100 From: dave santos Date: 10/12/2017
      Subject: Public Awareness of AWE tracked to its tipping point
      Over the last decade we have tracked world mass media increasingly covering AWE, consistently trying to explain what it is.

      Current BBS coverage of the KPS bird compatibility issue marks well established awareness of AWE, which no longer needs special explaining to the general educated public. All BBS needs to print these days is "kite power" and the reader is fairly presumed to know what is referred to-
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23101 From: dave santos Date: 10/13/2017
      Subject: Fort Felker's version of AWE as a New-Born Baby
      Aviation history is not just technical, but also social, and the social narrative has often consisted of premature claims as well as skepticism displaced by undeniable advances. At the birth of modern aviation the social discussion took on its characteristic form, when Franklin rebutted a skeptic with his famous, "What good is a newborn baby?" Indeed, the aviation baby relentlessly develops at its own pace, not at anyone's wishful demand.

      So it is with AWE, and nowhere is our baby's progress more closely followed than Makani's high-profile program. We have tracked Makani's many overly optimistic predictions, based on virtually unlimited funds, but now CEO Fort Felker, at AWEC2017, has made corrective statements closer to the facts, without directly conceding that the M600 is commercially very premature-

      "The long difficult expensive effort...largely lies ahead."

      This is not bad news for those who seek fulfillment in such efforts. The last decade has been wonderful. The next decade will see fantastic progress. Utility scale perfection will take time. Meanwhile, the powerkite is TRL9 and anyone can play. Enjoy the ride.
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23102 From: dave santos Date: 10/13/2017
      Subject: AWEC2017 Wrap-up
      Hopefully videos will emerge of the conference presentations, and many leads remain to follow up, but its possible to draw some broad conclusions from what's publicly available. Its obvious that ample new funding is driving a boom in major AWE R&D, and strong community growth is evident. EU has roughly matched Google's big effort and both these branches of elite R&D now face the same looming hurdles along safety-critical and economic dimensions. A cultural gap is increasingly established by the EU AWEC track between elite academic and corporate research and the more amorphous but formidable power kite, hobby kite, and DIY AWE world. The two cultures are hardly in contact as they were in the 2007-9 period, with Rod and Christof as rare current exceptions.

      What happens next in AWE is not too clear. Will scruffy grassroots AWE hit on a basic winning architecture before the clone-army of newly minted EU PhDs? Can we expect conferences to return to rotating outside of Northern EU domination? Will new funding pipelines like BEV shift R&D in new directions? When will some major player finally create an aerospace fly-off dynamic and seek to consolidate all the ferment? It could hardly be a more suspenseful and exciting moment. Perhaps the one clear signal from AWEC2017 is an increasing consensus with Open AWE that short term claims of commercial viability are dubious, even though there are a few fresh claims. ~2025 is being seen as a probable commercial threshold by multiple experts, but how we get there is wide open...
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23103 From: Olivier Normand Date: 10/14/2017
      Subject: Quick video from kitewinder
      Hy guys, we are doing great progress on kiwee. Still working on some mechanical and software details.
      next time you can have a cloth look on how we reel in / reel out as well as set up phase .
      Lot of work with producing those 20 machines for beta testing as you can imagine as well.



      Olivier from Kitewinder
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23104 From: Pierre BENHAIEM Date: 10/16/2017
      Subject: Re: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimalit

      Hi all,

       

      An interesting eight path as the two short reel-in phases are on the edges of the flight window, allowing decreasing the strength. Moreover the eight path can be kept in spite of the reel-in and reel-out phases. And the advantages mentioned on Dave's analysis below.

      Please, have you some measures and losses during reel-in phases (in %)?

       

      Thanks and congratulations,

       

      Pierre Benhaïem

      http://flygenkite.com

       

       

       
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23105 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/16/2017
      Subject: Saudi Arabia wind for AWE

      Wind turbines suspended high in the sky have potential as an alternative power source for Saudi Arabia

      October 16, 2017 

      Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-turbines-high-sky-potential-alternative.html#jCp


      ============================================================
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23106 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
      Subject: Gottlob Espenlaub

      http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/Espenlaub%20Experimental.htm

      Nickname: Expe

      Study related:   HERE 

      ==========================
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23107 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
      Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

      Espe was a key figure in kiting where the towing anchor of the kite system was a powered aircraft.

      HERE
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23108 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
      Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

      Correction of his nickname:

      Correct:  Espe

      ============================

      Some notes on early aerotowing:  HERE

      ==========================================
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23109 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
      Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub

      And contemporary blossoms:

      "If the aerotow concept becomes operational, a large transport-size jet aircraft would tow a piloted


      glider-like launch vehicle into the air with a long robust towline. At a predetermined altitude, the launch


      vehicle weighing about 320,000 lbs would separate from the tow aircraft."   Quote source HERE.
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23110 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/18/2017
      Subject: Aero towing

      Aero tow, aero towing,  Also: aerotow, aerotowing

      Tow wings using an anchor that is a powered aircraft.

      Tow wings using an anchor that is an unpowered aircraft.

      ============================================

      AWE operations have some opportunities that involve kiting where the anchor of the kite system is itself an aircraft, powered or unpowered.   FFAWE is a large sub category in this aerotow realm, which study. Breakaway kite systems being anchored by breakaway lines and things is a sub category for study and avoidance. Launching AWES  by use of aero towing that may follow with fixed or flown anchor systems.


      Include trains of aero-towed wings (and coteries, clusters, trees).   And some may consider clustered powered anchors working to tow clusters of wings (e.g. multiple tug boats moving a major ship).

      ====================

      History, plans, explorations, etc. are invited forever in this topic thread that may impinge on the design and execution of various energy kite systems.

      ====================
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23111 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/19/2017
      Subject: Wolfgang Schimmelpfenning

      Wolfgang Schimmelpfenning, author of Making & Flying Stunt Kites & One-Liners


      AWE is predicted to blossom in the legacy of Wolfgang Schimmelpfenning

      in his founded in 1985 the FANO Kite Flying Festival or International Kite Fliers Meeting Fano.  or Denmark Kite Festival.

      http://www.kitefliersmeetingfanoe.de/englisch/


      Coming dates for next six year:

      http://www.kitefliersmeetingfanoe.de/englisch/dates-2019---2024.html


      Kite systems that convert wind's energy to do good works, produce electricity, lift things and people, etc. are predicted to grow in variety, ingenuity, and polish at Fano and other places around the world.


      Some video
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23112 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/19/2017
      Subject: Process lines into proper channels

      Leave not lines just anywhere; process lines into effective secondary and tertiary channels.

      ====================================================================


      One unexpected result of poorly processed kite system lines:

      How manja, which can slit throats, also kills trees
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23113 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/20/2017
      Subject: Makani in X with US lobbyists?

      The super-secret Google X lab has hired its own lobbyists in the nation’s capital

      Google’s secretive experimental unit hired a new firm, a federal ethics report shows.

      by Tony Romm Oct 19, 2017, 7:15pm EDT

           
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23114 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/20/2017
      Subject: Ground-based constant-length-line powered truck-tow of manned wing

      10 15 17 Exit 116 Hang Gliding Static Tow 1,600' rope.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6IFmX3t2vg


      ===========================

      AWE's further implications and opportunities?
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23115 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
      Subject: Re: Ground-based constant-length-line powered truck-tow of manned wi
      This is fine virtual low-complexity AWE R&D into launching methods. With only a standard automobile, but no special pay-out or tow winch required, the two man team shows how to launch a fairly large (HG) kite that could in principle rate ~30kW as an AWES WECS. A special lesson is the calm unhurried pace of perfecting safe operational practice, dealing with minor issues like a shared public road, a snagged bush, etc..

      Compare this KIS practice with all the other launching methods- E-VTOL, catapults, fancy winches, LTA, etc. Simple ground-tow is a higher TRL method than any. Ironically, the COTS TRL9 automobile functions as a "simple" unit, hiding its complexity from operational demand. Ultimately, it seems the electric self-driving car will be the heart of mobile remote AWES rated at 30-100kW. This sort HG similarity-case is the right-stuff to help keep Open AWE moving right along within the pack of well-funded fully-staffed high-complexity ventures.


       

      10 15 17 Exit 116 Hang Gliding Static Tow 1,600' rope.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6IFmX3t2vg


      ===========================

      AWE's further implications and opportunities?
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23116 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
      Subject: Re: Makani in X with US lobbyists?
      Recalling the AWEC lobbying debacle of 2010, when Joby/Makani attempted to secure privatized US airspace, and was duly swatted down by aviation stakeholders and legal tradition. This time around, Makani may focus on waivers to FAA mass-velocity class-based regulations, and other restrictions, especially if they really intend to test the M600 in Hawaii next year. They will still face serious liability if or when anybody gets hurt or killed.

      The bigger picture is huge looming liability for another GoogleX program; self-driving cars. Secretive lobbying is not good government, and the tech giants are generally doing a poor job with public policy challenges, masked by pervasive self-serving PR. Google has been convicted in EU for cooking search results to favor its business interests, the same pattern we have long noted in Google's AWE search results, where Makani's website wrongly tended to beat even Wikipedia as a source of AWE info.





       

      The super-secret Google X lab has hired its own lobbyists in the nation’s capital

      Google’s secretive experimental unit hired a new firm, a federal ethics report shows.

      by Tony Romm Oct 19, 2017, 7:15pm EDT

           
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23117 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
      Subject: Re: Gottlob Espenlaub
      Nice NASA aerotow brief how the powerful aviation method might assist space launch. Specific aerotow concepts in AWE all seem to be in the Open-AWE_IP-Cloud, including cross-licensing intent with Bolonkin's IP. We have explored many variations over the years, like ferrying giant kite formations XC.

      An updated small-scale AWES aerotow concept is to use an E-Flight platform to do aerotow of an AWES kite to operating altitude. The short flight duration required for AWES launch is a good match to limited battery capacity. Landing a specialized aerotow vehicle to allow groundgen AWES kites to operate unburdened by self-launching gear is a major capacity advantage over kitefarm concepts that carry the launch gear. Aerotowing a single pilot-lifter aloft can intitiate a launch-cascade of an entire kitefarm formation. Compare with concepts that equip every unit kite with its own launch propulsion, and keep launching mass aloft parasitically.

      Open-AWE_IP-Cloud



       

      And contemporary blossoms:

      "If the aerotow concept becomes operational, a large transport-size jet aircraft would tow a piloted


      glider-like launch vehicle into the air with a long robust towline. At a predetermined altitude, the launch


      vehicle weighing about 320,000 lbs would separate from the tow aircraft."   Quote source HERE.
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23118 From: dave santos Date: 10/22/2017
      Subject: Re: Process lines into proper channels
                 
      The big picture is kite systems must be carefully engineered and validated for low plastic-pollution impact. Its a complex subject, since kite materials can be benign or toxic, retained or dispersed in use, and landfilled or recycled. Kites might even be a prime means to sweep up general air (or water) pollution, even sequestering CO2 in the form of UHMWPE fabric kiteline, possibly harvested and/or recycled aloft to synthesize structural self-perpetuation of planetary scale lattices.

      But first we must master immediate engineering issues like ablation of fabric sizing and wearing fibers, considering both chemistry and operational methods. What a consolation that PE, at least, is as benign as anything; its the very wax on plants. Other fibers and resins are scary, especially if shed upwind of populations and ecosystems, as toxic fallout. An open question is how long to fly our kites based on increasing ablation with age, since falling apart is perhaps the rarer or too-late end-of-lifecycle mode. Could kite ablation be the factor that returns us to organic fibers in some places? The dust a kite sheds or retains also impacts rain-drop formation.

      Manja kiteline is scary too. India is addicted, but aware of the problem. There is apparent inverse correlation between manja menace headlines and scant Indian soccer victory headlines. Kite-fighting and kite-running are that popular. A century ago, weather kites with piano-wire lines in various incidents stopped a train, a steamship, and cut telegraph communications to Paris. So here we have an odd new fact, that lost kiteline kills trees simply by promoting parasitic vines. Once again, the world-changing power of kites for good or ill is revealed. How nice most folks intend no harm, and will do the right thing once they know it.



       

      Leave not lines just anywhere; process lines into effective secondary and tertiary channels.

      ====================================================================


      One unexpected result of poorly processed kite system lines:

      How manja, which can slit throats, also kills trees
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23119 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
      Subject: Re: Northern EU validation of KiteLab Short-Stroke Pumping optimalit
      Further notes on pumping AWES in terms of return-phase efficiency (occasioned by an off-Forum question from Pierre) and expanding on related issues:

      Short-stroke and long-stroke pumping harvest efficiencies are roughly comparable, by similar overall cycle-time proportions. Proposed advantages of short stroke pumping are mostly O&M related, like better airspace utilization, easier passive cycling, reduced line-wear problem, and so on. Its an open question if some hidden capacity advantage exists for short-stroke v long-stroke pumping, other than short-stroke pumping can exploit a higher average wind velocity at its higher average altitude in the allowable wind gradient.

      Estimates and direct measurements of AWES cycle efficiency of reeling architectures have been published by many teams of the years. The Springer AWE book presents typical examples, where empirical efficiency varies according to design variables. No convincing maximum pumping cycle efficiency calculation exists. The working heuristic for both long-stroke and short-stroke pumping has been to spend the least cycle time in return phase, with the least power required in return phase compared to the maximum power delivered in the productive phase.

      Several other design factors are known important to general pumping efficiency. Highest practical L/D is an obvious desirement, open questions remain over relative performance between rigid and soft wings in most probable wind velocities, with issues of wing-loading, parasitic or interially useful penetration mass, relative tether-drag, and AoA-dependent lift and drag coefficients. A paradoxical case is of a varidrogue that hauls downwind and is furled or streamered for a fast return phase. One can define such downwind load-motion as equivalent to pure lift, since its harvestable force aligned optimally. Furled return drag force can be very low, with high velocity possible.

      Further subtle complex factors include pumping-phases pattern distribution in the kite window. Sweeping deep in the power zone, with recovery at the edge of the window, seems favored. AWES geometries vary greatly in this respect. There are other complications, like turn-efficiency of a kite, return-phase energy storage options, and associated economic factors to all these considerations, since optimal LCOE must often overrule ideal efficiency advantages.

      The ultimate AWES load motion is pure crosswind sweeping, with no return-phase. This is how a HAWT works so ideally, but sailboats and kites customarily tack briefly between left and right sweeps ("reaches"). Again, the ratio of power harvesting-phase to return-phase counts, with longer sweeps and shorter turns advantaged. Like the varidrogue case, this can be classed as another pumping cycle limit case. No single value for empiric or calculated optimal pumping cycle efficiency applies.

      -------------
      Note also that the 3D metrical box overlaid on the Ampyx photo lacks correct vanishing-point perspective.


       
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23120 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/23/2017
      Subject: Leaving a free-flight kite system to kite-glide

      Leaving a free-flight kite system to kite-glide

      http://www.zapiks.com/evasion.html


      =======================================

      Comments:

      The second round with the sail tearing could have been avoided by sewing reinforcements at the edge of the hole cut in the sail.


      Some future workers or inhabitants of aerotecture or AWES may get off the AWES by skydiving using a free-flight gliding kite system.

      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23121 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
      Subject: Growing Safety Gaps in AWE R&D
      As AWES prototypes grow in number and size, the danger is growing in a sneaky way, since what we do has hardly been done before.
      Giant power kites pose a unique hazard, like indefinitely sustained flight by dragging.Already, most experimental AWES have a potential for serious harm, and quite a few have deadly potential. The wind they depend on is as fickle as a wild beast. Reliable automation has been a marketing fiction.

      Only a crew, like a PIC, VO, etc., can currently safely operate a large AWES (ie SkySails, Makani). We have gotten away with crazy risks; rather lucky so far. We have not developed the shared responsibility required of any aviation sector, as serious accidents loom.

      This is not a call to stop scaling up, but it would be better if far more foundational R&D was done at small scale, before more scaling up of pet schemes dangerously. We need far more AWE R&D, but faster, cheaper, better, and safer, with comparative testing to speed domain knowledge acquisition. Old concerns over a best-practice safety culture, like open AWES mishap reporting, are no longer hypothetical, but are now urgent.

      Developers should keep in mind that if they are at inherent risk by their own creations, then public acceptance is a distant hope. AWE LCOE may be driven more by low-cost insurability than raw performance. Once again, maximum public and worker safety may be the only viable commercial strategy, even as most teams chase other engineering goals.

      There has been a lot of broad change in AWE in five years, as new folks addressing AWE safety within teams with particular scaling challenges, but many lessons still hidden in secretive ventures. Please review TACO1.0 from 2012 and send in any new information or ideas toward an updated document-





       
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23122 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
      Subject: Re: ftero Airborne Wind Energy
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23123 From: dave santos Date: 10/23/2017
      Subject: Aertotecture safety practices enhancement by arborist self-rescue
      We mine both alpine and industrial climbing for Aerotecture ideas and hardware. Arborists are major sector in industrial climbing, akin to logging climbing, and their self rescue practices are highly developed, owing to solo work in complex tree-tops, where outside rescue would be a professional humilation. Arborist climbing uses specialized gear and training, including an aerial test dummy with adjustable ballast, in this link. These folks also rescue co-workers, with less fancy gear and methods than rescue pros.

      A striking aspect of arborist climbing practice seen here is the use of a simple safety belt rather than a half or full suspension harness; the classical arborist mostly supports on the tree. Just so an aerotecture inhabitant will usually depend on reposing on aerial platform structure, and just wear a simple belt tether as a fall or descent backup, and perhaps carry a descent cord and other simple self-rescue means. One solo rescue mode noted here is falling to the end of one's safety lanyard, then controlled descent from there, rather than being stuck suspended, or forced to ascend again.

      The problem kite aerotecture faces is that kites can get stuck in the air if the kitekill or landing process fails, so the sky monkey may have to self-rescue like an arborist rather than use BASE or full rappel gear. For climbing all over an airborne rope lattice to high altitudes, a full harness and technical climbing gear, including reserve parachute, will instead be preferred.
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23124 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/25/2017
      Subject: Johannes Oehler and his AWE flow

      Johannes Oehler  and his AWE flow

      http://www.kitepower.eu/images/stories/j_oehler.jpg 

      https://www.tudelft.nl/en/staff/j.d.oehler/

      https://twitter.com/kite_power/status/847705814223642624


      =============================

      A tweet with photo of instrument made by Johannes Oehler:
      Johannes Oehler of @Uni_Stuttgart performs successful velocity vector   measurements onboard the @_Kitepower system with self-made equipment

      https://twitter.com/kite_power/status/847705814223642624


      ===============================


      ============================

      (Delft University of Technology | University of Stuttgart)

      Researcher Kite Aerodynamic Measurement


      Conference offer of the AWE flow by Johannes Oehler is his poster of this month.


      ================================

      Two-page poster of the AWEC 2017:


      Experimental Characterization of a Force-Controlled
      Flexible Wing Traction Kite
      Johannes Oehler
      Roland Schmehl

      =================================


      This topic thread on the AWE works of Johannes Oehler is open.

      Johannes Oehler is invited to trace his AWE flow here.  Beginnings? Challenges?  Future?

      How goes it?

      ================================= 
      Group: AirborneWindEnergy Message: 23125 From: joe_f_90032 Date: 10/26/2017
      Subject: Subsea cable matters

      Subsea cable matters may feed AWES future.

      Toward such, a start:


      The future of cable maintenance and repair in offshore wind farms

      October 23, 2017 Paul Dvorak


      http://www.windpowerengineering.com/cables/future-cable-maintenance-repair-offshore-wind-farms/

      =======================================