Comments on: Harnessing High Winds With Giant Kites

By: Euroflycars

Euroflycars — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:56:27 +0000

@Bman

Since a balloon is floating in the air, there is no wind whatsoever around it.

But you may be kidding us…

Anyway, the biggest problem of a kite dedicated to this use is it’s tether line fixing it to the ground — unless all aircraft would be equipped with automatic radar detectors coupled to the autopilot in order to avoid the lines automatically.

Yet this high-wind-harnessing kite technology is, alas, likely to benefit from government subsides for the sole purpose of building up still another obstacle against General Aviation…

By: Euroflycars

Euroflycars — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:44:55 +0000

As a believer in the civilian society’s self-defense capacity — based on myriads of personal aircraft taking possession of the hitherto exclusively militarily controlled airspace — I have no doubt that the idea would act as an obstacle to such massively popularized individual aeromobility, i.e. to the transfer of individual highway road traffic into the global airspace as an indispensable prerequisite for the advent of the global village and world peace.

By: Mike Maybury

Mike Maybury — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:30:44 +0000

As a believer in non-violent defence, I wonder whether the idea could also act as a defence against hostile planes. In the UK, in the second world war, barrage balloons were raised around towns and other targets. Their wires provided a deterrent against planes.

The lines from kites, I understand, would also move laterally and would be even more of a deterrent.

By: Jezreel Magbanua

Jezreel Magbanua — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:41:19 +0000

Airplanes and birds are in great danger. Some means of communication is needed here. I think the balloon idea is also good, just put some means of lowering it down with minimal power requirement. I hope this technology can be applied to the Philippines. We have a lot of mountains here.

By: Dan Fann

Dan Fann — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:26:20 +0000

The Kite works like a gliding parachute all you had to do is have a servo pull some string to change the shape of the kite so it doesn’t create lift and as it dives down you reel it in. A little energy is used but not nearly as much as is created.

By: Kris Taylor

Kris Taylor — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:47:09 +0000

I am just wondering how high of winds these kites can operate at. For example, I am looking for a wind technology for an area that can have winds up to 28 m/s. Would this technology be appropriate for an area such as this?

By: matt peffly

matt peffly — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:08:36 +0000

The idea is to steer them down. You apply a small amount of force to the guild strings to change the kites flight pattern. So you are not pulling them down, you are steering them down. Think of a para-glider, there are large strong lines that attach the glider to you and very small lines that you use to change the shape it’s shape and steer.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:36:52 +0000

My reaction to this is exactly the same as Bman. Surely the amount of energy needed to reel the kite in is equal (or higher) than that generated by allowing it to fly skyward.

Isn’t this the same as say, attaching generators on wheels that role down hills only to push them back up the hill to restart the process?

Counterproductive?

I must be missing something. Can anybody enlighten us?

By: Sarfraz Ahmad

Sarfraz Ahmad — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:29:06 +0000

Quite a breakthrough….! I wish best of luck.

As said Mr.Robin… Perpetual motion effect can help a lot. a step further you can also use the thin film Solar at the outer surface of the kite.

Hope to see these kite flying higher in the sky.

By: Arun

Arun — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:17:29 +0000

This sounds “The” great idea! So, my question is; why is it not possible to implement kitegen in Urban areas like Cities. Since cities are already heating up and there temperature is above 40 c and due to heating within built spaces, air tend to be lighter and moves up creating supportive place for Kites to fly in the sky. Can we augment kitgen on individual houses??? would be creative stuff as well!
cheers
Arun

By: Bman

Bman — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:09:56 +0000

This sounds cool, but how much energy is required to pull it back down? This seems somewhat counter productive to repeatedly use energy to generate energy.

What about utilize balloon technology? Mount a light wind turbine to a balloon connected to fiber optic cable and leave it aloft for long periods. Maybe a solar cell could be mounted to the top of the balloon too, generating a small amount of solar energy to power a little gas mechanism that periodically added gas to the balloon over time.

Is this crazy?

By: Robin Seller

Robin Seller — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:39:58 +0000

Such creative minds! You need to devise some sort of coil spring that pulls it back down to a certain point to get that yo-yo effect for perpetual motion. How awesome!