Any other scheme that only exists abstractly will take more time to design and prepare. The double-train would work, but not optimally (too much altitude encroachment, and a separate turbine attachment lattice required). The wait for a solution is especially long for the complex close formation drone flying that Tigner presumes, but never addresses,

daveS

[ ] Did Selsam?      

[ ] Did Shepard?

[ ] Did Ockels?

[ ] Did Bolonkin?

Its widely presumed that publishing with Springer-Verlag represents definite prestige for an AWE academic textbook. A background check uncovers a mixed picture. In summary-

======================

Why Springer? (AWE Textbook)

Its 2013; self-publishing on the Internet is the most powerful force for knowledge since Gutenburg. The printed page is now seen as a secondary technology, rather like travel by horse. Nevertheless, there is still a biggest academic book publisher in the world: Springer-Verlag. But this is not the same hallowed company founded in 1842, that a century later resisted the Nazis. Its now owned by the Government of Singapore (133rd place in world human rights) and an elite Swedish investment fund (EQT Partners).

These days, for a book-based venture to succeed against Everyman's Internet, its needs gimmicks. Springer, as a resold brand name, foremost depends on the sustained illusion of its old prestige, which motivates endless authors and readers to play along without asking questions. There is a tightly maintained facade of publishing expertise, with concocted style rules enforced on hapless contributors (like no color images in AWE's case). Staff hacks at Springer then take over to further format your book to suit themselves. Needless to say, the resulting book and web designs are as a rule quite banal.

Even worse, Springer print books and journals are generally overpriced compared to most printed works, often costing hundreds of dollars for pretentiously arcane books no one loves or needs. While books can now be published at low cost one-at-a-time, these special books are particularly intended to enrich those Nordic investor elites and authoritarian Singapore. The saddest outcome is the thousands of Springer papers and hundreds of journals that can only be read by paying high subscription fees, so many scholars are excluded. Let us insist; "knowledge wants to be free".

A new Springer "option" is to make Authors pay, vanity-publishing style, under a desperate (for a book company) "Open Access" program. For a few thousand dollars out of the author's pocket, Springer hosts the work like an overpriced ISP, perhaps even controlling the content in perpetuity, as an advertising portal. 

So why can't we demand the Government of Singapore subsidize an AWE Textook outright, rather than pick our pockets? Helping AWE, as a gift to the world, would be a redemptive signal that the notorious regime really is reforming. Just kidding; our friends, the domain Editors of record, would have to radicalize beyond recognition to make such a demand. They are not even culturally ready for open peer-review, but they did grudgingly opt for "Springer Open Access" (we are passing the hat, since NTS is strangely short on cash). Lets hope the book manages to cover AWE productively, despite grave doubts, including fears of technical bias and unfair commercial advantage.

Fortunately, Joe's open-AWE living-textbook project exists as a heroic counterbalance, but he needs all our help. His massive project is already a triumph of knowledge-sharing (if not "foolish consistency"), or the Springer academic publishing shortcomings would be a far more serious matter.

NOTES

Springer's Government of Singapore co-owner is a curious bed-fellow for enlightened scientists seeking to publish-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Singapore

-----------

The main argument for Springer style-enforcement is "consistency". Why? Perhaps its a classic authoritarian loyalty test, not even a conscious choice. From Wikipedia-

    * A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
    * Ralph Waldo Emerson
    * Self Reliance (1841).
    * Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.
    * Aldous Huxley, "Wordsworth in the Tropics" in Do What You Will (1929).
    * Consistency is a virtue for trains: what we want from a philosopher is insights, whether he comes by them consistently or not.
    * Stephen Vizinczey, "Good Faith and Bad" in London Sunday Telegraph (4/21/1974); reprinted in Truth and Lies in Literature (1986).
    * Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
    * Oscar Wilde, "The Relation of Dress to Art" in Pall Mall Gazette (2/28/1885); reprinted in Aristotle at Afternoon Tea:The Rare Oscar Wilde (1991).
    * Consistency is the enemy of enterprise, just as symmetry is the enemy of art.
    * George Bernard Shaw, quoted by Michael Holroyd in Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy (1991).
    * The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
    * F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up" in Esquire (2/36).
    * If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing.
    * Miguel de Unamuno, quoted by Douglas R. Hofstadter in Godel, Escher, Bach (1979).
    * Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.
    * Bernard Berenson, Notebook (1892).
    * Of course I'm inconsistent! Only logicians and cretins are consistent!
    * Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (1976); spoken by the character "The Chink".
    * A silly ass ... wrote a paper to prove me inconsistent. ... Inconsistency is the bugbear of fools! I wouldn't give a damn for a fellow who couldn't change his mind with a change of conditions.
    * John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, British Admiral and First Sea Lord, in a letter to former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (ndg); reported in Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904-1919. (1961-1965); quoted by Robert K. Massie in Deadnought: Britain, Germany and the Comiing of the Great War (1991).
    * I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own tastes.
    * Marchel Duchamp, quoted by Harriet & Sidney Janis in "Marchel Duchamp: Anti-Artist" in View magazine (3/21/45); reprinted in Robert Motherwell, Dada Painters and Poets (1951).
    * The problem with being consistent is that there are lots of ways to be consistent, and they're all inconsistent with each other.
    * Larry Wall, message-ID <20050516005559.GC26184@wall.org mailing-list.
    * Psychotics are consistently inconsistent. The essence of sanity is to be inconsistently inconsistent.
    * Larry Wall, Usenet article <199809041918.MAA06850@wall.org

Meilleurs voeux

0033(0)603838276

 

Interesting configuration.

Your hybrid concept matches what Doug (USWindLabs) and i recently discussed by phone, to take a stack of 2x4 lumber and carve a a bunch of SuperTurbine blades to lift under Mothra1 in rows, as part of ongoing NOKE/Util/KiteLab/UTexas/Skymill partnered work. We did not cover many details, but an obvious open question to test is whether its better to torque or tug the drive-rope (USWindLabs v. SkyMill Multi-Rotor Methods). FlipWings, flygens, captive kiteplanes, and all sorts of groundgens would also be tested.

There are project funds to cover spartan direct expenses for the intensive kite work, but it helps if more angel funding is brought to the table and shared. Everyone with a willingness to learn or possessing key skills is invited to come help direct-test leading methods side-by-side, if not to decide winners, then at least to gain ever more experience. No doubt an intense "encampment event" will greatly advance us all.

So how would you like to see your concept sketch come alive so soon?

 

 

 

 

The forwarded promotional material was already mostly known, but its a good sign that Fraunhofer seems responsive to public interest in its AWES work. Did Joachim understand the specific engineering questions regarding AWES Standards development, land and airspace minimization, and so on? 

Lets ask Martin for help (native-German fluent-English) if lack of exact translation is a barrier. We are grateful to Joachim for continued information sharing,

daveS