Another Crackpot Idea?

There were once some theoretical claims that no wind-powered device could go downwind faster than the wind itself blew. This vehicle proved otherwise; IIRC, it goes a little more than twice as fast as the wind. There has been at least one prior CR4 thread on it.

Successful measured performance is seldom, if ever, a crackpot idea.

Double the wind speed,cube the power on a wind generator.This vehicle is moving down wind twice as fast as the wind is moving behind it, so the power required to move it through the wind must be less than the power generated by the prop/drive combination.
I can see why the theorists said it could not be done,but seeing and proving is believing!
Notice the prop is turning opposite from a plane prop going in the same direction?It would be pushing air forward if it was motor driven.
There is even one version that claims it can run against the wind by using a turbine instead of a prop.Now what if someone combined the two, with the forward air from the prop turning a turbine? I know just enough about this to be dangerous I guess.I am sure the experts in the field have thought of this.
I can see potential for this on large ship to assist in prop power.Already some large ships are using large composite sails to reduce fuel usage.

See also Jacques Cousteau's Alcyone.

Not as long as you have wind, with this vehicle, it works.

No wind, no go.

Even if wind is there, how to go in the direction against wind?

Please read up on tacking a sailboat upwind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NixkmV8d3lM

There are major back ups on the beltway today. This is the second day we have seen a dead calm that has had traffic at stand still.

Ice boats, land yachts, and very high speed soft water boats have been able to go both upwind and downwind at greater than wind speed, via tacking. The velocity made good (in other words the vector directly downwind) is greater than wind speed. This means that the boat speed over ground must be at least 1.414 times windspeed, assuming tacks 45 degrees off the true wind direction.

This craft was not actually the first to go directly downwind at greater than wind speed. That happened back in 1964, I think. But this is the first that has been well publicized, and the first I think that is large enough to carry a person.

But still, the brains of otherwise bright people turn to jelly when describing how this works.

There have been several windmill-powered boats that can easily sail directly into the wind, a feat not possible with a convention or rigid sail.

There is an earlier thread or two on the Blackbird. Here's one, in which one of the people involved with the project designers replies.

Here is another earlier thread about this idea.