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AutosRain Clips Greenbird's Wings
Rain was the last thing Richard Jenkins needed as he tried to set a land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle, and it was all he got. After a rainy month in western Australia awaiting his shot at the record, the British engineer is packing up the land yacht he calls Greenbird and heading home.
September was supposed to be the perfect time to make his run across the salt flats of Lake Lefroy and topple the current record of 116.7 mph, but Mother Nature wouldn't cooperate.
"After many years of uncooperative weather, I am used to it by now," Jenkins, who has spent a decade chasing his dream of setting the record, told the Birmingham Post. "But it does not make it any less frustrating. When we can't set a new record due to the impact of the weather, it's not like losing a race, but it's more like an athlete not even being allowed to enter the arena."Lake Lefroy is usually dry in September, but it got about an inch more rain in July and August than it did during the same period last year. That may not sound like much, but it was enough to keep the salt beds that ring the lake from drying. July saw the region receive twice its average monthly amount in two days, while a single storm dumped as much rain on the area in 12 hours as it receives in all of August. Jenkins and his team made no bones about attributing the unseasonable rain to global warming.
"We're pretty disappointed not to have been able to get the
Greenbird out of the starting blocks," says Dale Vince, managing
director of Ecotricity, the firm that sponsored Greenbird. "And it's an irony not lost on us that while Greenbird is intended to
show how the world might be getting around when fossil fuels run out,
the changes that fossil fuels are causing to our climate right now
appear to be the very thing that has stopped us."
Greenbird is the fifth iteration of the land yacht Jenkins originally called Windjet but renamed in a nod to Bluebird, the record-setting racers Britain's Donald Campbell
drove in the 1950s and '60s. Jenkins' craft is every bit as graceful as
Campbell's were brutish, and it shares more in common with jets than
sailboats. He calls it "a highly-evolved vehicle" that draws heavily
from aerospace and Formula 1 racing technology. Jenkins claims to have hit 120 mph in test runs on an airstrip in Britain but they didn't count because the record must be set on a natural surface.
And so the record American Bob Schumacher set nine years ago stands. For now. Jenkins says he'll be back next year to try again.
Photos by Greenbird. Here's a photo of Jenkins and his land yacht during better days. See our original post for more pics and info about Greenbird and how it works.
Published: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:19:23 GMT - Source: Blog.Wired.Com - Read the articleAutosRiding the Wind Into the Record Book
Richard Jenkins is sitting on a dry lake in western Australia, waiting patiently for the gust that will carry him across the salt and into history at the helm of a land yacht named Greenbird.
The British engineer has spent 10 years chasing his dream of setting the land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle, a goal he's convinced is at last within his reach. Greenbird is capable of at least 120 mph, a figure that would comfortably eclipse the current record of 116.7 mph. "After 10 years I now have the right vehicle, in the right part of the world with the right team in support," he says. "We now just need the weather to cooperate."
Heavy rain has sidelined his team since it arrived at Lake Lefroy on Friday, but the sky is clearing, the salt is drying and the wind is picking up. Greenbird is ready, and the record could fall any day now.Greenbird is the fifth iteration of the land yacht Jenkins originally called Windjet but renamed in a nod to Bluebird, the record-setting racers Britain's Donald Campbell drove in the 1950s and '60s. Jenkins' craft is every bit as graceful as Campbell's were brutish, and it shares more in common with jets than sailboats. He calls it "a highly-evolved vehicle" that draws heavily from aerospace and Formula 1 racing technology.
Instead of the conventional sail of a typical land yacht, Greenbird features a rigid wing that produces thrust in much the same way an airplane wing produces lift. The vehicle is made entirely of carbon composite materials, and the only metal parts are the bearings for the wing and the wheels. Jenkins says the aerodynamic design and light weight lets Greenbird achieve vehicle speeds three to five times greater than the wind speed. An earlier prototype once hit 90 mph in a 25 mph wind.
"Top speed is actually quite scary," he told the Guardian. "The structure and tire grip is all at the limit, so keeping it in a straight line under full control takes full concentration." But even then things can get ugly quickly. Jenkins skittered off the salt and into the brush at 106 mph when he ran through a dust storm during a run in Nevada three years ago.
The current record stands at 116.7 mph, a speed American Bob Schumacher achieved at the wheel of the Iron Duck in 1999. Jenkins says he's twice taken Greenbird beyond 120 mph during test runs on an airstrip in Britain, but it doesn't count because the world record must be set on a natural surface.
Jenkins figures he's got about three weeks to set the record; any longer than that and the weather won't be ideal. After that, his attention will shift to the ice, where he thinks he's got a shot at 150 mph in a version of Greenbird rigged with skate-like blades. That's almost twice the current confirmed record for ice-sailing, which stands at 84 mph. Jenkins will be on the ice of Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Montana beginning early next year.
UPDATE 7:00 a.m. Aug. 22: Some of you had questions about how the sail works, and Richard Jenkins was kind enough to offer an explanation in the comments. Here it is:
The technology is pretty straight forward, but tricky to explain, so I try to brush round it for most pieces, but as this is Wired, I guess you will all understand, so here is an attempt..To try to answer some of the questions above,
1) 110 deg from the nose is the fastest point of sail. This is actually about the same for all sailboats, independent of speed.2) depending on the surface traction, we can achieve ratios of up to 5 times the true wind speed (on tarmac, 3-4 times on dirt/salt), meaning an apparent wind angle of around 12 deg to the nose. The angle of the wing is then at about 3-5 deg (to leeward) of the apparent wind (7-9 deg from the vehicle track).3) The wing is symmetrical so it can sail on both tacks, but the outrigger is set up for suction, so it is fastest on STB tack.I will try to do a more detailed picture explanation on the Greenbird Website. Check there over the next few days and I would be happy to answer any questions.Thank you, Richard!
Photos by Greenbird. See a video of Greenbird being prepped on the salt here. Thanks to Mike at Inhabitat for the tip!
Published: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:47:40 GMT - Source: Blog.Wired.Com - Read the article
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