MegaScale Rotation- New Giant Kite Farm Turret Solution

A highly desirable kite farm feature is to be able to rotate the whole farm as a single turret, to maintain a large integrated kite array oriented crosswind and/or drive the turret to generate power. For a km scale kite turret without an expensive giant carousel wheel or loop-track, a few surface anchors can be set in a ring. Belaying between anchors is workable, but its roughnecking to hitch and unhitch such belays manually.

Here is a way to "wheel" a kitefarm around an anchor ring without belays, so obvious that surely someone already saw this-

Imagine a powerful industrial cableway looped in a large continuous circle. It must resist kite array pull from above, which basically means setting load pulleys "upside-down". A kite array is then free to rotate at megascale, at the low capital cost of cableway tech.

Concentric loops are natural for redundancy.

CoolIP*                      ~Dave Santos                 10Mar2012                     AWES5780

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

Terms and aspects:   

• v

Related links and concepts:

• http://stream.fs.fed.us/news/streamnt/streamnt/apr00/apr00_1.htm
• http://shop.rixen-seilbahnen.de/
• http://www.himcableways.com/
• http://www.wyssen.com/en/
• http://www.wyssen.com/en/wsr/products/cable-winch/
• http://www.fastonline.org/CD3WD_40/CD3WD/APPRTECH/G10TOE/EN/B1125_18.HTM
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_tramway
• Poor Man's AWECS Turrets
• MegaScale Rotation- New Giant Kite Farm Turret Solution
• AirborneWindEnergy/12788
• Directly Driven Crank Generator Demo
•  

Commentary is welcome:

• Interesting concept!    ~Harry
   
• Rod Read on April 6, 2012:     "If a layer of hexagonal mesh of tarp kixels was flown above a layer of hexagonal meshed steering cableway... where the steering points line up and connect to the centre of a radial slots arranged in the centre of the tarp kixel. Tensioning on the steering mesh ground tether points on the upwind of steering set, would allow a working 3D mega arch."