HyperFlags and Rooster-Tails

As it turns out, sequentially synchronous "firing" of multiple membrane wing-mills is a simple and easy AWE method.

A key synch pattern is to fire three wings in rotation, pulling on three lines in turn (ADCABCABC...). This action will drive a triple crankshaft on the ground, just as Lloyd long ago disclosed. The new trick is to array wingmills along a pilot line downwind where the leading wing's oscillation sets up a wave that flows in turn to the next wing in line, and so on. It looks like a waving rooster tail hung upside down.

Consider a flag where the flapping wave starts at the pole and propagates downwind. A flogging headsail acts the same way: the tensile continuity of the fabric reliably acts as a waveguide. Further imagine that the flag is skeletonized into a herringbone pattern of ribbon wings and you have a "hyperflag."  I made some this morning and observed highly enhanced oscillation with much less material. To tap this motion lines are rigged (and tuned) from the lower wingtips in phase to a conventional (ideally COTS) crankshaft.

See the many old KiteLab posts on membrane wing-mills for important practical details.

CoopIP