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Return of the Tri-Tether (crosswind non-belay) An early AWES solution shared on the Forum was a looping-kite under a pilot-lifter driving a Tri-Tether (rope tripod). The looping motion drove three tethers, anchored in a triangle, in phase (123123123...), to drive a central crank or turntable. A small-scale demonstrator was flown and worked well, strongly driving a hand generator in a steady cadence. Attention then shifted to exploring the many wing-kite options for scaling up, and compass-belay was used as the simplest test method. Two legged parafoil AWES have lately been shown to work, so now we come full circle back to the Tri-Tether; which eliminates belay, but in its earliest versions required a manual trim-input at the anchors, to let the tripod tilt downwind. The next generation of Tri-Tether calls for passive self-adjustment of the tripod-legs. This will allow small AWES that can be set up and "forgotten"; able to self-orient to the wind (and self-relaunch by a sled pilot-lifter). [x] Where is the nice explanatory Tri-Tether diagram an Italian friend did? I am pondering varied rigging means for adding self-tilting, but maybe some reader can come up with the best rig soonest. SEE BELOW FOR THE ARTWORK OF Gabriele Betti We recall:
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