• soft kites only have a limited wind range, outside this the whole set of arches of trains will fail.
• the top most kites have to go faster, depending on how many layers up you go, they may not be compatible with initial launching requirements.
  

Roddy,

Could you add the conversion system (with crank for example like DaveS suggests) on the animation,considering several possibilities (arch as whole entity,multiple nodes...)? Some explicit animation can clarify some points where words are not enough.

PierreB

A complete animation with conversion system should be useful not only for your specific design,even not only for arch,but perhaps for some kite systems.

PierreB

•        WOW        Wall of Wind.   Project start at FIU in 2005, but continues ...  
  
  
  With reversible physics,
  consider mining a hurricane's energy with WOW set as wind-energy collectors.  
  Even consider flying WOW. 
  
  Though the frequency of hurricane winds is seemingly too infrequent for practical energy mining, one might consider harvesting energy from hurricanes and storing the energy for use during the remaining of the year. Instead of flooding areas, considering putting the energy to work to fill a huge high lake. 

down selection, down selecting

• Engineering management
  • Engineering decision process that selects from options in order to move into builds  AWES7352
    
    
  • "the engineering management requirement to pare down the long list of AWES ideas to only the most essential. A huge fog of brainstormed ideas now hide golden core principles that will endure. It is nearing the time to correctly choose, or lose."   DaveS         4 Oct 2012  
      
  • Without down selecting there may be a tendency to have "paralysis by analysis" where attention and investment is not focused into a build-and-serve actuality. Holding out for "best" will not practically serve practical needs.  JpF          4 Oct 2012 
    
    
  • Reduction in the number of contractors or sub-contractors working on a project, as it moves from one phase to another, in accordance with the criteria established usually in the request for proposal (RFP) documents. 
    
    
  • http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/1901/P1901_Work_Flow.pdf
  •  
• Open markets may tend to pare offerings; a down selecting occurs by purchase decisions; products not purchase will probably stop being produced.

Never mind bird poo

The effects of contamination in kites are worth considering.
Does a ram air collect a lot of rain?

A sealed wing has advantages
Does anyone know...
With sealed beam or tube design optimised to achieve neutral buoyancy, by mixing material strength, density, porosity, content of water and air ...
How does a tensarity beam or sealed coiled tube behave as it submerges?
I'm guessing really well...Hose certainly works for fluid energy transfer and tension transmission with biaxial winding walls.

So

Can we design with other bird parts in mind

Can I alter my design
Straight (bone like) tethers from the driven to the driving wheel set, (think sealed nylon pipe)
Are encircled by winding coils of muscle and tendon (hose for tethers)
The inside ring of the driving set, is like a scooped circular wishbone.. (think of a steel measuring tape loop, fluted)

A smooth skin, (laminated sail) over and inside the bone like shaft.

Axially Outward from the driven wheel,  a wing socket (hinging / cuff) and cuff rotors, hinge steering actuators for retracting (Dipping sail), flapping (pumping sail) and trimming.

 (less likely so far but, The wing could be of several  hinged quills like crow wingtips

The wing bones could be a profiled tensairity beam,

Encased in skin (reinforced &  profiled sail nylon sandwiches)

The tendons which ran out on bone can sprout kite tethers (pipe or line) which link into the skin in reinforced patches and even tied to the reinforcement inside the skin sandwich., with the reinforcement line running back to the wing bone.

I think puffin, penguin or even seal and whale wings may be the ideal easy tide power grabbers...

Any favourite bird parts yourself?

Extract of Massimo's post "decollo automatico:ci eravamo posti l'obiettivo di provare 7 metodi differenti, 4 quelli più artistici e virtuosi direi che sono falliti o non sono adatti al sito di Sommariva.Il metodo con il pallone secondo il brillante brevetto di Dave Lang, purtroppo non ci funziona abbastanza bene e costa troppo caro in termini di elio.i brandeggi e la catapulta fanno un buon lavoro ma anche raggiungendo agevolmente 60 metri di altezza a Sommariva non bastano nella maggioranza dei casi per continuare il volo.Il decollo naturale funziona ma è evento rarissimo sul sito attuale, e di solito decolla quando stiamo facendo altro e non vorremmo che decollasse."

Have you a reference of the cited Lang's patent?

PierreB

This Lang's patent comes from energykitesystems'datas,but is it the patent to which Massimo refers?

PierreB