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The EAGLE AWECS does have one great virtue in the LTA space- the modular separation of turbine and lift is far more practical than excess integration, at least in the early market. Yes, the Darrieus turbine chosen (or Gorlov) is far heavier and poorer performing than a conventional disc HAWT. Its an open question if a custom winged blimp kytoon will beat a cheaper conventional aerostat in practice. KiteLab has long predicted a conventional aerostat lifting an ultralight conventional turbine is the optimal AWE LTA configuration. The Eagle could meet its claims someday. Its true the Eagle intro text seems worded by a marketing hack rather than an engineer, but we must be careful in pissing on AWE newbies; they might just be kids doing their best, although i was sure your old laddermill sketch was by a bright ten-year-old, go figure. The good news is that the AWE R&D circle continues to grow. Lets be the Welcome Wagon, daveS  

EAGLE
Electrical Airborne Generator with a Lighter-than-air Eolian (EAGLE)

Nicholas N. White, Nick White,

Mario Garcia-Sanz

AWE4361


Commentary


The EAGLE AWECS does have one great virtue in the LTA space- the modular separation of turbine and lift is far more practical than excess integration, at least in the early market. Yes, the Darrieus turbine chosen (or Gorlov) is far heavier and poorer performing than a conventional disc HAWT. Its an open question if a custom winged blimp kytoon will beat a cheaper conventional aerostat in practice. KiteLab has long predicted a conventional aerostat lifting an ultralight conventional turbine is the optimal AWE LTA configuration.

daveS

EAGLE thesis bibliography:

Bibliography
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[3] Chen, C.-T. (1999). Linear System Theory and Design. New York: Oxford
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[4] Etkin, B. (2000). Dynamics of Atmospheric Flight. Mineola: Dover
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[5] Garcia-Sanz, M., & Houpis, C. (2011). Wind Energy Systems: Control
Engineering Design. CRC Press, Francis & Taylor.
[6] Garcia-Sanz, M., Eguinoa, I., Barreras, M., & Bennani, S. (2008). Non-
Diagonal MIMO QFT Controller Design for Darwin-Type Spacecraft with
Large Flimsy Appendages. Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement,
and Control , Vol. 130, 011006-1:011006-15.

[7] Garcia-Sanz, M., White, N., & Tierno, N. (2010). Patent No. Provisional
Application No. 61/387,432. US.

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85
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[21] Terink, E., Breukels, J., Schmel, R., & Ockels, W. Flight Dynamics and
Stability of a Tethered Inflatable Kiteplane. Delft: Delft University of
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[22] White, N., Tierno, N., & Garcia-Sanz, M. (2011). A Novel Approach to
Airborne Wind Energy: Design and Modeling. IEEE .
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a Kite on a Variable Length Flexible Inelastic Tether. AIAA Modelling and
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Theory. 6th IFAC Symposium on Robust Control Design, ROCOND’09,
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