CoolIP                       ~Dave Santos             Aug. 17, 2011       M3959

Comment and development of this topic will be occurring here.       
All, send notes, drawings, and photographs!

Terms and aspects:   

• douse
• MacroKite is formerly MetaKite 
• cascade launch of an arched train
• spreading and narrowing of anchors of an arched train
• progressive luffing of an arch by weathercocking to douse the system
• operational lessons
• crosslinking multiple arches into a MacroKite
• farm array          

Related links:

• WSIK
• Spider-Mill         "Spider-Mill" Dynamics (Review and Update)

Commentary is welcome:

• 
• Dave Culp taught me a lot about his brilliant OL ship kite (KiteShip). It is a sort of giant three-line single-skin "playsail" with an optimal minimal-surface geometry. Flying it was always mind-expanding. Its unbeatable scaling limits are more driven by operational challenges than physical constraints, as the kite sooner becomes monstrously unmanageable rather than too massive to fly.
  
  My ongoing kite studies also included large-scale multi-kite trains, arches, and 3-D lattices. I knew that years of flying Flexi stacks on water left DaveC feeling that multikites were too fussy. This was perhaps the hardest flying possible, just short of unworkability. On the other hand, kite train and arch masters managed well with tamer handier array rigs, easily able to aggregate impressive power.
  
  The notion slowly arose in my small head that a lattice of many large but still human-manageable kites could be strung along the same minimal surface geometry as Dave's OL kite. A vast spread of kite could be progressively launched and landed on a scale of up to ten kilometers or more. This sort of megascale macrokite is the largest dynamic structural tech ever, a basis for a new golden age of sailing in the sky.
  
  Compared to the single "monolithic" kite, the cellular flow-thru damping dynamics enhance stability, just as highwind kites are made with open basket woven ribbon, porous cloth, or with cutout vents. "Fractal" kite cell structure imposes its own Reynolds characteristic dimension, lowering Re, compared with a giant high-solidity kite. Semi-independent cell kites with local degrees of freedom reduce the overall harmonic Q-factor, even as cell-kites exhibit high Q oscillation (high-speed looping).
  
  Further stability is available by "staking out" the vast (macro)kite, another technique DaveC taught me. In effect, the land becomes the "kite stick" to hold firmly open an extensive soft kite structure. My solution to rotate such vast kite structure is to belay the side bridle-points around a circle of anchors, a mix of alpinism and power-winching (the third "brake line" pivots around the center). A macrokite can be strung over low terrain, stretched clear of the ground, and launch from this position. On water, a set of boats can act as mobile anchors for a macrokite.
  
  The obvious application of this idea is large scale kite energy. Wind harvesting devices can raise and lower on halyards hung from the lattice. Many other applications, like aerial architecture, are also enabled.
  
  To get an idea of an OL inspired macrokite see the background image at this site-
  KiteLab GroupDave Culp taught me a lot about his brilliant OL ship kite (KiteShip). It is a sort of giant three-line single-skin "playsail" with an optimal minimal-surface geometry. Flying it was always mind-expanding. Its unbeatable scaling limits are more driven by operational challenges than physical constraints, as the kite sooner becomes monstrously unmanageable rather than too massive to fly.
  
  My ongoing kite studies also included large-scale multi-kite trains, arches, and 3-D lattices. I knew that years of flying Flexi stacks on water left DaveC feeling that multikites were too fussy. This was perhaps the hardest flying possible, just short of unworkability. On the other hand, kite train and arch masters managed well with tamer handier array rigs, easily able to aggregate impressive power.
  
  The notion slowly arose in my small head that a lattice of many large but still human-manageable kites could be strung along the same minimal surface geometry as Dave's OL kite. A vast spread of kite could be progressively launched and landed on a scale of up to ten kilometers or more. This sort of megascale macrokite is the largest dynamic structural tech ever, a basis for a new golden age of sailing in the sky.
  
  Compared to the single "monolithic" kite, the cellular flow-thru damping dynamics enhance stability, just as highwind kites are made with open basket woven ribbon, porous cloth, or with cutout vents. "Fractal" kite cell structure imposes its own Reynolds characteristic dimension, lowering Re, compared with a giant high-solidity kite. Semi-independent cell kites with local degrees of freedom reduce the overall harmonic Q-factor, even as cell-kites exhibit high Q oscillation (high-speed looping).
  
  Further stability is available by "staking out" the vast (macro)kite, another technique DaveC taught me. In effect, the land becomes the "kite stick" to hold firmly open an extensive soft kite structure. My solution to rotate such vast kite structure is to belay the side bridle-points around a circle of anchors, a mix of alpinism and power-winching (the third "brake line" pivots around the center). A macrokite can be strung over low terrain, stretched clear of the ground, and launch from this position. On water, a set of boats can act as mobile anchors for a macrokite.
  
  The obvious application of this idea is large scale kite energy. Wind harvesting devices can raise and lower on halyards hung from the lattice. Many other applications, like aerial architecture, are also enabled.
  
  To get an idea of an OL inspired macrokite see the background image at this site-
  KiteLab Group                                  ~DaveS            ayers2426     Sept.5, 2011.
   
• See 2012 WSIKF rainbow arch set by Ed Jensen  (one MB high res. photo) 
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