Wind Powered Vehicle Attains New Speed Record
Photo via: www.greenbird.co.uk
Generally when you hear the words, wind powered vehicle, you will not hear the word fast anywhere within that same sentence. The technology just has not advanced enough yet to provide enough power under such means to produce enough inertia to create some serious speeds.
This is what has made Richard Jenkins feat all the more impressive. He has succeeded in breaking the old record of 116 mph, which was set by the Iron Duck in 1999. He beat the record by 10 mph, making an incredible 126 mph run down the plains of Nevada.
Jenkins vehicle has been through 10 years and five design changes before reaching this pivotal moment in transportation history. The final design, know as the Greenbird is made up very light and strong carbon fiber composite. The sail is not made of fabric (as you might have thought), but rather a solid material, which looks more like a wing than a sail.
The only problem with a wing, is it creates lift during high speeds, similar to any other high performance machine. To compensate for this, Jenkins used the old Formula One trick of incorporating small wings to push the vehicle back down towards the ground. The faster the vehicle picks up speed, the more force is exerted on the frame to hold it to the ground.
While the Greenbird weighs in at 1,300 pounds, the wings were needed to apply over a ton of pressure to the craft in order to keep it from going airborne. Taking flight at such speeds would be a very dangerous situation for any driver of one of these wind crafts.
Next on Jenkins agenda is to build a similar contraption, but instead of running it on a dessert plain, he is going to be cruising on a sheet of ice. There is some speculation that the ice craft should have the ability to travel at slightly higher speeds, but the verdict is still out…
Source: BBC- Wind-powered car breaks record
