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Timeline for Airborne Wind Energy
 (work in progress is quite incomplete yet; your time items are invited.)
for founding actions of the
airborne wind-energy conversion systems (AWECS) industry
including its sectors of  tethered aviation, free-flight tethered aviation, and non-tethered AWECS as RATs.|
         Grow and improve this timeline: Send information and links to Editor@UpperWindPower.com

Early   1800s  1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s  1950s  1960s 1970s 1980s  1990s 
2000  2001  2002  2003  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010 2011 2012  Future
 
Early
  • Trees are AWECS. Trees are kites.  Humans are kites. Moorings, tethers, L/D bodies! ~~JoeF
  • Wind-carried leaves and objects to further locations provided dispersal of seeds, materials for aggregations, relocations of vital species, etc. The energy of the wind was converted to new plants, soil making, new communities of life, etc.
     
  • "All kites are wind-energy devices, since the very beginning thousands of years ago, as it takes energy to sustain HTA flight. Thus early AWE-enabled kite-fishing and kite-sailing contributed vitally to the Neolithic economics of canoe peoples along the SW Pacific Rim."  ~DaveS   
     
  • Working tethered aerial platforms were used to do practical works for ages by converting the wind's energy to mechanical actions to fulfill practical tasks (move objects, give observation, drop objects, exercise human bodies, signal, entertain, etc. )
     
  • 1796   George Pocock successfully converted wind's energy by use of a tethered aerial converter in order to practically move human-occupied vehicles over land. 

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Sir George Cayley        
1800s
  • 1827 George Pocock's book ‘The Aeropleustic Art’ or 'Navigation in the Air by the Use of Kites or Buoyant Sails' was published. The book was to be republished again several times. The Charvolant or Kite Carriage was described. Importantly Pocock described use of kites for land and sea travel.
     
  • 1864? Book's chapter Kite-Ship well described key dynamics of AWECS used for tugging ships by kites.  Four volumes. The summer volume had Chapter XVIII titled Kite-Ship that well described HAWP kite-tugging dynamics.
     
  • 1833 John Adolphus Etzler saw HAWP blossoming at least for the traction sector of the industry. The paradise within the reach of all men, without labor by powers of nature and machiner. An address to all intelligent men.  Volumes 1-2 By John Adolphus Etzler. “We might extend the application of [wind] power to the heights of the clouds, by means of kites.”
     
  • Lawrence Hargrave       
  •  
  • Traction or the pulling of objects, bodies, and vehicles by use of tethered aerial platforms continued throughout the centuries with blossomings in such sub-industries as sport kiteboarding, kiteboating, kitesailing, yacht kitesailing, cargo-ship sailing, kite landboarding, kite snowboarding, kite skating, etc.  Traction AWECS is the subject of several AWECS methods: Yo-Yo, Slow Yo-Yo, Varidrogue, pulling hydro turbines, and the pulling of logs (or other objects in need of moving along the land or water for some practical or recreational purpose). 
     
  • 1889:    Thayer's patent, which see and all drawings filed over a hundred years ago in July 22, 1889.
     

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1900s
  • 1908  in the territory of Breslau a significant mechanical demonstration occurred within a formal gliding club where movement of a kite's mooring was punctuated. Surely Pocock's kite mooring was moving and bouncing along the roads; and Benjamin Franklin's body was moving across the pond as he moored his kite. An arrangement of hanging the intended human pilot from the keel of a sailed wing behind a cable-stayed triangle airframe part to be used for shifting the human pilot's mass relative to the wing's attitude for control of flight gave an example of a kite system (the kiteline was the tensional hanging device that held the pilot; the kite system's mooring was the human body of the intended pilot; the kite pilot was the human at the lower end of the short kite line; the kite's wing and its airframe was integral). This example a free-flight kite system with the kite's wing or lifting body converting wind and relative wind to lift and drag as the kite's mooring (the falling pilot's mass) moved through the air free of touching soil.   This particular instance, though mechanically rich was executed without significant flight path, but the mechanics of such demonstration continued a gift begun by earlier aviators; the future would see such triangular control frame as a very popular assembly in ultralights, hang gliders, and other aircraft.  Photograph of such 1908 instance is in the Stephan Nitsch collection; he gave permission to HangGliderHistory to include the finding to tell the story of hang gliding, a form of AWECS that involves kite moorings that move through the air in response to gravity to give tension to the kiteline so the lifting body may convert wind's energy to practical works.   Image
     
  • August 1, 1919: Kite history in Germany      and M

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1910s
  • 1910
     

  •  
  • 1918 William John Dickinson.
     
  • 1919 October 21 filing: Eugene Antz instructs torsion shaft held at angle to current by lifting bodies and holding multiple vanes in fluid flow to do work.  US Patent 1371836    Selsam in 2001 would cite Antz.

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1920s


  •  

  • 1921  Carlton David Palmer    US Patent 1495036 Means for creating emergency power for airplane radio generator by Carlton David Palmer, filed Dec 6, 1921. 
     
  • 1925 May 4.       US Pat. 1548542  Filed May 4, 1925. Kite. Thomas E. Meena of Ohio.  This AWECS converts upper wind energy into sound as well as the common tether tension.
     
  • 1926    US Patent 1717552 Airship by Alpin I. Dunn, filed Jan 30, 1926.  

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1930s
  • 1930 February 20:    Orla E.  Bradford had the turbine in kite making noise in a filed instruction in 1930:  Patent number: 1824324  Filing date: Feb 20, 1930.     See further: 1940, May 7, 1940   Monoplane kite.    Orla E. Bradford instructs an AWECS that converts the upper wind energy to sound via a turbine onboard the kite.    US Pat. 2240881   
  • 1930c? Rotary wing AWECS experiment by Telefunken? Mentioned by Gianni ... [ ]  Vergnano [ ].
  • 1930
  • 1935     http://www.energykitesystems.net/AloysVanGries/index.html 
    "Patented in the German Empire on 26 April 1935"   
  • 1937   Improvements in or relating to Wind-driven Power Apparatus
    by     A. Van Gries
    Dr. Ing. A. Van Gries, of 72, Nussbaumerstrasse, Köln, Germany, a German citizen
    Application date: July 27, 1937.        Accepted July 20, 1938.
    http://www.energykitesystems.net/Gries/GB489139A.pdf

 
1940s
  • 1940, May 7, 1940   Monoplane kite.    Orla E. Bradford instructs an AWECS that converts the upper wind energy to sound via a turbine onboard the kite.    US Pat. 2240881    Yet same Bradford had the turbine in kite making noise in a filed instruction in 1930:  Patent number: 1824324  Filing date: Feb 20, 1930.
     

     Domina C. Jalbert               

    • Patent US 2398744  Filed: Aug 31, 1945. 

    •  
  • _____ generators on aerostats               
     
  • Francis Melvin Rogallo                  
     
  • 1943    free-flight AWECS received a strong published instruction by Stanley Biszak where a free gliding or soaring aircraft is set to generate electricity from the relative winds aloft for charging batteries. A tether is not involved here.  RAT. US Patent 2368630 High altitude free-flight wind turbines charged batteries by using potential energy to form wind by Stanley Biszak, filed June 3, 1943.
     
  •  

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1950s
  • 1953 inspiration point for parafoil by Domina C. Jalbert     Source.   and    Related collection at Drachen.
  • 1954      Igor Bensen continued a use of the triangle control frame (TCF) and hung tensionally a free-flight pilot as mooring in a free-flight airborne wind energy conversion system called a gyro-kite glider:  Image.  The practical work being effected was dominantly recreational.  Other uses effected: observation deck.

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1960s
  • The space race Sputnik-(1957)-charged introduced a synergy that resulted in increased manned kiting activity by NASA and associated companies and individuals, including hgh-speed moving moorings of tethered lifting bodies. This brought in a run of patents over the Wanner wing, Rogallo wing, Barish sailwing, Jalbert parafoil, and many versions of  what was then termed paraglider which wrapped flexible sail over frames (unlike the later use of the term paraglider). The free=flight governable parachutes increased in importance. The severe kiting in the Paresev program included release-for-glide weight-shift control (move payload mass relative to attitude of wing). Such kiting gave impetus to expanding uses of large kites, both with moving moorings and free-flight kites. Children of such investments and experience may be seen in the surge of hang gliding, traction-kiting sports, the 1970s AWECS bump, and even much of 2000s professional AWECS race. It may be said that a huge new golden age of kiting K2 was birthed by the communications of Domina C. Jalbert and Francis M. Rogallo moved along by political pressures and competitions punctuated with the need for freedom expressed in recreational manned kiting found in Igor Bensen, aqua-kiting, hang gliding, and gliding sky-diving. It is suspected that K2 will blossom to be a diamond Age of Tethered Aviation that will be perhaps a winner of the K3 name.      ~~JoeF, December 26, 2010.
     
  • David Barish              David Theodore Barish          Article  
     
  • 1962  Dec. 3:  Charles Arthur Smith instructs instances of RATS AWECS in Aerological mapping arrangement  US Patent  3229517
     
  • 1965  Arthur D. Struble, Jr.  gave US Patent 3227398 Balloon Tether Cable by Arthur D. Struble, Jr., filed Mar 4, 1965. Streamlined tether.
     
  • 1967  publication:    Richard Miller in his Without Visible Means of Support  well described for the world a two-kite system of converting upper winds for travel without fuel; the two ends were the terminals of a free-flight tether. Operating the two kites' individual positions in differential winds were to effect a net dynamic soaring to effect moving the system across land paths.  1967 Richard Miller, former editor of Soaring magazine, described the feasibility of free-flight coupled non-ground-moored kites to capture differences in wind strata to travel across continents; such method is the subject of a Dale C. Kramer contemporary patent application.

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1970s
  • 1970c Paul MacCready experiments with kites.
    Note: http://www.drachen.org/journals/journal22/Journal22-entire.pdf  
    • Clip: "In the early 1970s, MacCready said he experimented with a kite system he hoped would provide a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week environmental monitoring capability. His idea was to use balloons, tethered above kites, which would streamline and trail the kites when the wind was adequate for normal kite flight, but in no wind the balloons would fly above and suspend the system; it was his thought that numerous monitoring systems might not only give valuable on-site information but also be a visual reminder to the public of public environmental degradation. For various reasons, he discontinued the project." Source
    •  
  • 1975, July: Manalis, M.S., “Airborne Windmills: Energy Source for Communication Aerostats,” AIAA Lighter Than Air Technology Conference, AIAA Paper 75-923, July 1975.
     
  • 1975    Peter Rowland Payne gave several key patented AWECS instructions:
  • 1975  April 25:    Lambros Lois gave  US Pat. 3924827 Filed: Apr 25, 1975. Apparatus for extracting energy from winds at significant height above the surface.
     
  • 1975  June 6:   Alberto Kling.  US Patent 4073516 Wind driven power plant by Alberto Kling, filed June 6, 1975.
     
  • 1976  Lambros Lois.  US Patent 4076190  Apparatus for extracting energy from winds at significant height above the surface by Lambros Lois, filed March 30, 1976.
     
  • 1977 of April 3:     Douglas Spriggs Selsam            Certified conception of laddermill AWECS.  April 3, 1977, invention declared. On September 21, 1979, Douglas Selsam notarized his kite-lifted endless chain of airfoils HAWP system, generic type that would later show in Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels' [Drachen Foundation article] device called LadderMill described in a patent of 1997. Douglas Selsam conceived his Auto-oriented Wind Harnessing Buoyant Aerial Tramway on April 3, 1977. On the Selsam notarized disclosure of invention was placed a date of Sept. 20, while the notary placed the final signing on Sept. 21, 1979, the birthday of the first editor of UpperWindpower.            notes and drawings.
     
  • 1977  US Patent 4124182   Wind drive energy system by Arnold Loeb, filed November 14, 1977.
     
  • 1978   KiteShip by Dave Culp
     
  • 1978   US Patent 4084102   Wind driven, high altitude power apparatus by Charles Max Fry, Henry W. Hise, filed March 7, 1978. (terrain enabled)
     
  • 1978  US Patent 4166596   Airship power turbine by William J. Mouton, Jr., and David F. Thompson, filed April 28, 1978.
     
  • 1978    US Patent 4207026   Tethered lighter than air turbine by Oliver J. Kushto, filed Sep 29, 1978.
     
  • 1978    Miles L. Loyd furthered the instruction on gaining energy by cross-wind flying kites.
    • US Patent 4251040   Wind driven apparatus for power generation by Miles L. Loyd, filed Dec. 11, 1978.
    • Paper:  See 1980

  • Electricity generation from jet-stream winds by Fletcher, C. A. J.; Roberts, B. W in Journal of Energy, Vol. 3, July-Aug, 1979, p. 241-249.    Research supported by the National Energy, Research, Development, and Demonstration Council of Australia.

  • 1979  Professor Bryan Roberts begins gyromill gyrocopter-type wind generator development. Multi-rotor kite flygen.
    http://images.machinedesign.com/images/archive/501429340302jpg_00000048394.jpg
    http://images.machinedesign.com/images/archive/501429340300jpg_00000048393.jpg
     
  • 1979  US Patent 4309006   Tethered airfoil wind energy conversion system by Lloyd I. Biscomb, filed Jun 4, 1979.
  • Jan. 4, 1979:  TAWECS patent by Lloyd I. Biscomb
    Tethered airfoil wind energy conversion system Lloyd I. Biscomb
    Patent number: 4309006  Filing date: Jun 4, 1979    Issue date: Jan 5, 1982
    [Biscomb seemed to see large vanes in the first filing. Then it seems he saw the option of many smaller vanes during scaling; then he went on to his next filing, see below. Aerostat with special design to product maximized pressure difference over the vane by way of the shape of the aerostat or tethered airfoil. ]
     
  • Dec. 7, 1979  US Patent 4285481   Multiple wind turbine tethered airfoil wind energy conversion system by Lloyd I. Biscomb, filed Dec 7, 1979.

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1980s
  • William R. Benoit:
    • Patent number: 4350896   Filing date: Oct 24, 1980
    • Patent number: 4350897   Filing date: Oct 24, 1980
    • Patent number: 4350898   Filing date: Oct 24, 1980
    • Patent number: 4350899   Filing date: Oct 24, 1980
    • Patent number: 4450364   Filing date: Mar 24, 1982
       
  • 1980  Significant paper by Miles L. Loyd:  Crosswind Kite Power, Journal of Energy, May - June 1980, Vol. 4 No. 3 pp. 106 - 111.
     
  • 1980  November 16:  "On November 16th, 1980, at around 3 am EST,  Len's and my father David H. Shepard awoke in the night to the thought that the world's energy problems could be solved by capturing high altitude wind energy. He recorded a notation of his thoughts, signed it, and had witnesses sign it later in the day. Len tells me that this and other notes of our father's inventions are now in the Library of Congress."  PJ Shepard
     
  • 1981   US Patent 4486669   Wind generator kite system by Paul F. Pugh, filed November 9, 1981.
     
  • 1982  US Patent 4450364   Lighter than air wind energy conversion system utilizing a rotating envelope by William R. Benoit, filed March 24, 1982.
     
  • 1982  US Patent 4470563   Airship-windmill by Gijsbert J. Engelsman, filed Mar 9, 1982. Fan-belt.
     
  • 1982  US Patent 4572962   Apparatus for extracting energy from winds at high altitudes by David H. Shepard, filed April 28, 1982.
     
  • 1982  US Patent 4491739   Airship-floated wind turbine by William K. Watson, filed Sep 27, 1982.
     
  • 1985  David Hammond Shepard         Several AWECS patents
    • 1985  US Patent 4659940   Power generation from high altitude winds by David H. Shepard, filed Oct 11, 1985.
    • vvvv
       
  • 1986   Bryan Roberts' multi-rotor AWECS generates electricity and lifts itself in tethered flight.  See Robert's rotorcraft photograph of experiment in Australia.  PJ Shepard, daughter of David H. Shepard, places year for the photograph at 1986 at best memory. Bryan Roberts recalls the photograph was at his session in May of 1986. In the photograph the powered craft was almost in autorotation; actual electricity generation was done briefly in another test. A video is available where electric generation was effected. The shown craft had two rotating hubs; at each hub radiated a lifting rotor blade and a shorter streamlined blade with a counter-balancing mass at its tip.  Professor Roberts plans flying power station; total craft weighed 64 lb. From left to right the people: Hasso Nibbe, Alan Fien, Grahame Levitt, and Bryan Roberts; all were employees of the University of Sydney. Site: Mt. Pleasant Farm at Marulan in New South Wales. Wind: approximately 15 knots thereabouts. AWECS inventor David H. Shepard after much correspondence finally met facet to face in 2006 Professor Bryan Roberts; such are part of the foundations of HAWPA company Sky WindPower.
     
  • 1988  US Patent 5150859  Wingtip Turbine by Thomas F. Ransick, filed Oct 11, 1988
     
  • 1988  US Patent 5056447   Rein-deer kite by Gaudencio A. Labrador, filed Oct 13, 1988.
     
  • 1988  US Patent 4917332   Wingtip vortex turbine by James C. Patterson, Jr., filed Oct 28, 1988.
     
  • Flight Research Institute's Wayne German writes about tethered aviation. Reference.

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1990s

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2000

2001

  • Greg (RIP, 2006) gave PJ the link  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1248068.stm which was forwarded to David H. Shepard (RIP, 2007), AWE inventor, which action led to partnering with Dr. Bryan Roberts, AWE inventor, for the formation of Sky WindPower company in 2002.
     
  • 29 March 2001, news posted:    Thursday, 29 March, 2001, 09:17 GMT 10:17 UK
    Professor plans flying power station    Sci/Tech / 29 March 2001    "gyromill"    "Professor Roberts, from the University of Western Sydney, has spent 20 years proving the concept and is now ready to put it into practice. He wants to build the first station near Woomera in South Australia".    [What is the 2013 report on such 30 years of focus?     DiscussHere ]
     
  • Spring of 2001 the firm of BMW Oracle Racing (then Oracle Racing) approached KiteShip under a non-disclosure agreement in order to determine whether a rule-legal spinnaker could be designed and built which was also a free-flying kite.  Source.
     
  • 2001 Founding of SkySails company. As leader in ship traction HAWP, in 2010 they note having just less than 10 installations.    SkySails History and Milestones
     
  • 2001         W.J. Ockels: "Laddermill, a novel concept to exploit the energy in the airspace". Aircraft Design, Vol. 4, No. 2-3, pp. 81-97, 2001. doi: 10.1016/S1369-8869(01)00002-7
     
  • 2001   US Patent 6494143  
    Filed: Jun 28, 2001 Bolonkin's method movement of vehicles and installation for it.
     
  • 2001 September 6      Method of Utilization a Flow Energy and Power Installation   Filed: September 6, 2001
     
  • 2001 Dale C. Kramer emphatically visits and instructs the two-kite free-flight method in his patent application of January 18, 2001.
     
  • 2001  US Patent 6616402   Serpentine wind turbine by Douglas Spriggs Selsam, filed June 14, 2001.
     
  • 2001  US Patent 6523781  Axial-mode linear wind-turbine by Gary Dean Ragner, filed Aug 29, 2001.
     
  • 2001  US Patent 6555931  Renewable energy systems using long-stroke open-channel reciprocating engines by John V. Mizzi, filed on Sep 14, 2001.

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2002
  • 2002  Drachen Foundation awarded a grant to David Lang so that he would explore the use of kites to generate practical power. [Discourse, Aug. 2008, page 30]
     
  • 2002    M1383    provisional patent document is available directly from Dave Lang.   Passkeyed document? Yes. To read the document use the following passkey in lowercase without any use of blank space:   awe
    The PDF document is at:     http://www.energykitesystems.net/DaveLang/HyTr.pdf
     
  • 2002  US Patent 6781254   Windmill kite by Bryan William Roberts, filed Oct 17, 2002.
     
  • 2002  US Patent 6925949   Elevated sailing apparatus by Malcolm Phillips, filed Dec 31, 2002.

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2003
  • US Patent 6914345   Power generation by John R Webster, filed June 23, 2003.
     
  • 2003  April 25, 2003 David Shepard first met with NREL to present AWE & Sky WindPower's FEG concept - meeting was arranged by and attended by Len, too. NREL's preference since then has been that the talents of those pursuing AWE would be better focused on improving ground wind. Someday after the AWE industry is better developed the meeting might have historical significance
     
  • 2003 July/Aug    Gary Osoba      Why Microlift Soaring?    
     
  • 2003 October 22:  Tethered Airfoils by Wayne German, kite-energy trailblazer  
     
  • 2003 December 16:    Date of preparation: 16-Dec-03
    Project Acronym: "KiWiGen"
    Project full title: "Kite Wind Generator, smart control of power kites for renewable energy production"
    Participants: Utrecht University, Delft University of Technology, Institute of Electric Technology, FATRONIK, Ce.S.I., Fidia S.p.A., and Sequoia Automation, Srl.

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2004   Massimo Ippolito http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AirborneWindEnergy/files/KiteGen/EP1672214A1.pdf 
  • 2004  Drachen Foundation had David Lang, former NASA expert, aerospace consultant, conduct a survey-study of kite-based power generation. He published a summary of methods in his view. [Using Kites to Generate Electricity: Plodding, Low Tech Approach Wins]  
    "Lang talked of his own findings when he studied kite power generation ideas on behalf of the Foundation in 2004."
     
  • 2004 Aug.16-19. Alexander Bolonkin presented Utilization of Wind Energy at High Altitude wherein arguments for groundgen over flygen were presented along with other concepts. A preference for using  "closed loop, modern composite fiber cable" was expressed.    M2891       SomeHere.        See: 2001.
     
  • Complaint at 23-24, Resnick v. Shepard, No. 07-CV-0813-L (S.D.C.A. May 7, 2004.)   ???    
     
  • 2004 October:      Monday, 11 Oct 2004: KiWigen Project was in flow already.    See: 16 December 2003 above.                                                               [[Thierry Langlois d'Estaintot was reader of information.]]
     
  • 2004     Designing of kites in 2004 onwards  punctuated a rising AWECS student and contributor: Reinhart Paelinck   Reinhart ‘Rein-Art’ Paelinck                 See: Dragon kite made in 2004
     
  • System and method for umbrella power generation
    Inventors: Jianjun Zhang of Cupertino, CA (US).
    Nanzhi Zou of Fremont, CA (US)
    Wang-Long Zhou of Andover, MA (US).
    Correspondence address:
    Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.
    530 Virgina Road, P.O. Box 9133, Concord, MA 01742-9133 (US)
    Assignee: Skywind, Inc., Andover, MA (US).
    Applicaiton No.: 12/754,879.
    Filed: April 6, 2010.
    Relate U.S. Application Data:
    Provisional application No. 61/215,201, filed on May 4, 2009, provisional application No. 61/215,202, filed on May 4, 2009, provisional application No. 61/215,204, filed on May 4, 2009.
     
  • 2004  US Patent 7183663   Precisely controlled flying electric generators by Bryan William Roberts and David Hammond Shepard, filed Aug 17, 2004.
     
  • 2004  US Patent 7109598  Precisely controlled flying electric generators III by Bryan William Roberts and David Hammond Shepard, filed Oct 18, 2004.
     
  • 2004 Oct 12, Peter S. Lynn: Tethered free flying wings
     
  • 2004 October 21: A presentation was composed with use of term "KiWiGen"    See presentation composed on Oct. 21, 2004: The KiWiGen Project Kite Wind Generator           See also some history on "KiteGen" term.  See also 2003 Dec. 16 and its meeting paper above.
     
  • 2004    US Patent 7129596   Hovering wind turbine by Aleandro Soares Macedo, filed Oct 31, 2004.
     
  • 2004     W.J. Ockels, B. Lansdorp, J. Breukels, G. Spierenburg: "The Laddermill: work in progress". European Wind Energy Conference & Exhibition, London, UK, 22-25 November 2004. pdf
     
  • 2004 December:   “Smart control system exploiting the characteristics of generic kites
    or airfoils to convert energy    ”, European patent,  02840646, inventor: M. Ippolito, December 2004
     
  •  

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2005
  • 2005   Conception, planning, and decision process for "Kite Gen"  occurred: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:10:20 +0100 See record:  M2773
    2005     Domain name:     www.KITEGEN.COM      Created on: 2005-09-09  
                  Registrant Name: SEQUOIA AUTOMATION SRL       M2773
     
  • 2005  HAWP conference held at AeroVironment, Pasadena, CA; attendees: Paul MacCready, Dave Lang, Joe Hadzicki, Scott Skinner. The long meeting was videotaped; the tape is in the archives of the Drachen Foundation, open to researchers.  
    Description of this key meeting: http://www.drachen.org/journals/journal22/Journal22-entire.pdf
     
  • 2005  US Patent 7335000   Systems and methods for tethered wind turbines by Frederick D. Ferguson, filed May 3, 2005.
     
  • 2005 March 3:
  • 2005 March 11     [[ 11 Mar 2005 ]]  Project title: Controllo di aquiloni di potenza per la generazione eolica di energia 
  • 2005 March 27 
     
  • 2005 March 31:    Thu, 31 Mar 2005
     
  • 2005  November:    
    Gaylord G. Olson files AWECS' instructions on "Aerial wind power generation system"
     
  • 2005     J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: Tethered "kiteplane" design for the Laddermill project. 4th World Wind Energy Conference & Renewable Energy Exhibition 2005, Melbourne, Australia, 2-5 November 2005. PDF

    B. Lansdorp, B. Remes, W.J. Ockels: "Design and testing of a remotely controlled surfkite for the Laddermill". 4th World Wind Energy Conference & Renewable Energy Exhibition 2005, Melbourne, Australia, 2-5 November 2005. pdf

    B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: "Design of a 100 MW laddermill for wind energy generation from 5 km altitude", 7th World Congress on Recovery, Recycling and Re-Integration, Peking, China, 25-29 September 2005. pdf

    B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: "Comparison of concepts for high-altitude wind energy generation with ground based generator". 2nd China International Renewable Energy Equipment & Technology Exhibition and Conference, Beijing, China, 25-27 May 2005. pdf
     

  • Jianjun Zhang begins working on AWECS challenge while in Cupertino, California, USA; he would later go to China to set up an AWECS research center.  SkyWind., Inc would later be a step in Massachusetts, USA.  A patent application in USA features a lifter system holding also a series of opening-and-closing umbrella elements for driving a Yo-yo method of generating electricity.
     
  • December 2005:  At the beginning of December DF Board members Joe Hadzicki, Dave Lang, and Scott Skinner met with Paul MacCready to discuss recent developments in power generation using kites; the meeting was recorded and photo-documented for the DF Archive. Watch for a profile of MacCready and an account of the meeting in Kite Journal #22.    [ ]  

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 2006

  • 2006        AWE-drawing set started by Dave Santos.  A run of over 700 pages of drawings were gathered and published by Drachen Foundation:     . Drawings--700 pages--made from 2006 into 2009 by Dave Santos.  Sample  
     
  • Robert Creighton launched WindLift from his home in Wisconsin in 2006. 
     
  • NTS "In 2006 I moved to the supervisory board of my company to found NTS"  ~Uwe Ahrens
     
  • At Politecnico di Torino (Italy), a project named KiteGen started in 2006 for aimed studying and developing the technology of high–altitude wind energy using controlled airfoils.     Source.        GeneralLink
     
  • 2006 Feb. 27:   US Patent 7188808  
    Aerial wind power generation system and method by Gaylord G. Olson, filed Feb 27, 2006.
     
  • 2006. April:    WindLift, LLC was founded in April of 2006.
     
  • 2006  US Patent 7317261   Power generating apparatus by Andrew Martin Rolt, assignee: Rolls-Royce, plc; filed July 25, 2006
     
  • 2006  US Patent 7287481   Launch and retrieval arrangement for an aerodynamic profile element by Stephan Wrang and Stephan Brabeck of Hamburg, Germany, filed: September 29, 2006.
     
  • 2006 Kite Sailing Symposium, Seattle, Washington, September 28–30, 2006.
     
  • 2006 on October 19: Jong Chul Kim, filed for international patent protection for "Electric power generation system using hydro turbine tracted by paraglider."  His further studies has been for at-sea production of hydrogen and other chemicals using HAWP tethering kite systems.[37]   WO 2008/047963  Electric power generation system using hydro turbine tracted by paraglider by Jong Chul Kim. Filed: 19 October 2006.   [ 2008??   Paper: Wind Power Generation With a Parawing on Ships, a Proposal ]
     
  • 2006 Dr. Paul MacCready, American aeronautical engineer, Inventor of the Year Award in 1981, publishes an influential article  Paul MacCready Sees Great Promise In Using Kites to Tap Power of Wind
     
  • 2006 January 30: First International Workshop on Modelling and Optimization of Power Generating Kites KITE-OPT 07 held in Belgium featured keynote speaker astronaut Prof. Wubbo Ockels.
     
  • 2006   September: [1] A 40 kW prototype of high altitude wind generator is tested in Italy by Kite Gen Research Massimo Ippolito. September 14, 2006, fourth test session of MobileGen, 40 kW prototype.   
    KiteGen 2006 Sardegna tests
     
  • 2006   WO 2007027765  Multi-rotor wind turbine supported by continuous central driveshaft by Douglas Spriggs Selsam, filed August 8, 2006.
     
  • 2006    Control of tethered airfoils for a new class of wind energy generator, M. Canale, L. Fagiano, M. Ippolito, M. Milanese, 45th. IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego (CA), USA, 2006
     
  • 2006    The Laddermill - Innovative Wind Energy from High Altitudes in Holland and Australia, B. Lansdorp and P. Williams, Windpower, 2006.
     
  • 2006, June 23, Vergnano files for patent: Ultralight airfoils for wind energy conversion by Gianni Vergnano.  The patent was ultimately issued:  Issued patent: US8113777 (Issue date Feb 14, 2012)
     
  • 2006     http://kitegen.com/

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Flight control and stability of a multiple kites tethered system".Renewable Energy 2006, Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan, 9-13 October 2006. pdf

    W.J. Ockels, R. Ruiterkamp, B. Lansdorp: "Ship propulsion by Kites combining energy production by Laddermill principle and direct kite propulsion". Kite Sailing Symposium, Center for Wooden Boats/South Lake Union, Seattle, WA, 28-30 September 2006. pdf

    B. Lansdorp, P. Williams: "The Laddermill - Innovative Wind Energy from High Altitudes in Holland and Australia". Global Windpower 2006, Adelaide, Australia, 18-21 September 2006. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J.Ockels: "Problem of Pareto-Optimal Control for a High Altitude Energy System". 9th World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC IX), Florence, Italy, 19-25 August 2006. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J.Ockels: "Three-dimensional simulation of a Laddermill". 3rd Asian Wind Power Conference (WindPowerAsia2006), Beijing, China, 28-30 June, 2006. pdf

    B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: "Design and construction of a 2 kW Laddermill groundstation". Wind Power Asia 2006, Beijing, China, 28-30 June 2006.
     

  • 2006 Sept.  Don Montague lists himself as having co-founded Makani in this month.
     
  • 2006 October:   Makani Power, an Emeryville alternative energy effort from Squid Labs, has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Google, according to a regulatory filing.    October, 2006. Later they would get $5 million more from Google; then in 2010 they would receive $3 million in an ARPA-E.     Flygen on rigid craft that self-power launch through energy up conductive tether seems to be their main focus.
     
  • 2006    Michael R Blouin, Benjamin Isabella, Joshua Rodden. “WIND POWER FROM KITES” MQP, Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2006-2007     Wind Power From Kites     April 27th, 2007          109 pages.    by Michael R. Blouin Jr., Benjamin E. Isabella, Joshua E. Rodden

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2007

  • 2007  "Founded in 2007, Kite Gen Research"       http://tinyurl.com/KiteGenResearchGENERAL
     
  • 2007  US Patent 7275719   Wind drive apparatus for an aerial wind power generation system Gaylord G. Olson, filed February 9, 2007.
     
  • 2007    kPower  founded in 2007.  Michael Breen. 
  • 2007 April 26: Michael R Blouin, Benjamin Isabella, Joshua Rodden. “WIND POWER FROM KITES” MQP, Worcester Polytechnic Institute April 26, 2007
     
  • KiteNav project started. Kites for naval propulsion.
     
  • 2007  US Patent 7504741   Wind energy plant with a steerable kite by Stephan Wrage, Stephan Brabeck, filed March 30, 2007.
     
  • 2007   WO/2008/004261 Wind system for converting energy through a vertical-axis turbine actuated by means of kites and process for producing electric energy through such system by Massimo Ippolito and Franco Taddei of Italy. Italy priority date July 4, 2006. International filing date of June 13, 2007.
     
  • 2007  Dave Santos demonstrated lofted Portland KiteMotor at alt-energy West Coast Climate Convergence; the generation success was announced in HIPFiSH Columbia-Pacific's Alternative Monthly (Aug.-Sept./2007). KiteMotor Growing Pains.
     
  • 2007 summer: ViGYAN Wind Tunnel Expedites Magenn Development
     
  • 2007  Comparison of Two Mathematical Models of the Kite for Laddermill Sail Simulation, A. R. Podgaets and W. J. Ockels, Proc. of the World Cong. on Engineering and Computer Science 2007.
     
  • 2007   Design and Construction of a 4 KW Groundstation for the Laddermill, B. Lansdorp and W. J. Ockels, IASTED EuroPES 2007.
     
  • 2007   KiteGen project: control as key technology for a quantum leap in wind energy generators, M. Canale, L. Fagiano, M. Milanese, M. Ippolito, Proc. of American Control Conference, New York 2007.
     
  • 2007   Power Kites for Wind Energy Generation - Fast Predictive Control of Tethered Airfoils, M. Canale, L. Fagiano, M. Milanese, IEEE Control Systems Magazine (12) 2007.
     
  • 2007   Harnessing High Altitude Wind Power, B. W. Roberts, D. H. Shepard, K. Caldeira, M. E. Cannon, D. G. Eccles,  A. J. Grenier, and J. F. Freidin,  IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion, 2007, 22(1) pp. 136-144.
     
  • 2007    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Laddermill sail – a new concept in sailing". International Conference on Engineering Technology (ICET 2007), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11-14 December 2007. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Robust Control of Laddermill Wind Energy System". Wind Power Shanghai Conference, Shanghai, China, 1-3 November 2007. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Comparison of two mathematical models of the kite for Laddermill sail simulation". IAENG World Congress of Engineering Computer Science, San Francisco, CA, USA, 24-26 October 2007. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Flight Control of the High Altitude Wind Power System". 7th Conference on Sustainable Applications for Tropical Island States, Cape Canaveral, FL, USA, 3-6 June 2007. pdf

    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "A multi-body dynamics approach to a cable simulation for kites". Asian Modelling and Simulation (AsiaMS2007), Beijing, China, 8-10 October 2007. pdf

    B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: "Design and construction of the 4kW groundstation for the laddermill". 7th IASTED International Conference on Power and Energy Systems (EuroPES 2007), Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 29-31 August 2007. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: "Optimal Trajectories for Tethered Kite Mounted on a Vertical Axis Generator". AIAA 2007-6706, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, SC, USA, 20-23 August 2007. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Flexible Tethered Kite with Movable Attachment Points, Part II: State and Wind Estimation”. AIAA-2007-6629, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, SC, USA, 20-23 August 2007. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Flexible Tethered Kite with Movable Attachment Points, Part I: Dynamics and Control”. AIAA-2007-6628, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, SC, USA, 20-23 August 2007. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Towards Flight Testing of Remotely Controlled Surfkites for Wind Energy Generation”. AIAA-2007-6643, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Hilton Head, SC, USA, 20-23 August 2007. pdf

    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "Numerical and Experimental Results of the Airflow in the Delft University KiteLab". AIAA 2007-3922, 25th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, Miami, FL, USA, 25-28 June 2007. pdf

    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "Design of a large inflatable kiteplane". AIAA 2007-2246, 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Honolulu, HI, USA, 23-26 April 2007. pdf

    J. Breuer, W.J. Ockels, R.H. Luchsinger: "An inflatable wing using the principle of Tensairity". AIAA 2007-2117, 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Honolulu, HI, USA, 23-26 April 2007. pdf

    A.R. Podgaets, W.J. Ockels: "Stability of Optimal Solutions: Multi- and Single-Objective Approaches". 1st IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Multicriteria Decision Making (MCDM 2007), Honolulu, HI, USA, 1-5 April 2007. pdf

    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: “Past, present and future of kites and energy generation”. Power and Energy Systems Conference 2007, Clearwater, FL, USA, 3-5 January 2007. pdf
     

  • 2007    Furey, A.D.J. and Harvey, I. (2007). Evolution of Neural Networks for Active Control of Tethered Airfoils. In Almeida e Costa, F., Rocha, L.M., Costa, E., Harvey, I. and Coutinho, A., editors, Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Life, pages 746-756. Springer. pdf.
  • 2007   Domain Name:   www.KITEGEN.INFO     Created On:15-Oct-2007
  • 2007   November 2:  Robots help high-flying kites to reap wind energy
  • 2007. November 24:  AWE inventor and founder of Sky WindPower enters Highest Lift; see:
  • 2007   Dec. 11:   "Not everything in this article is accurate, as is true of many articles that appear in the press, especially when information is collected in a hurry from many people who are in a grieving state or have aging memories. It contains some information about my father's connection with high-altitude wind energy and Ken Caldeira." ~PJ       Article:  David H. Shepard, 84, Dies; Optical Reader Inventor

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2008
  • 2008 Dave Santos demonstrates flipwings for AWE passive-control generator systems.
     
  • 2008 March 23  WOW   "Wind Operations Worldwide S.p.A. (WOW SpA) was established in Leghorn as a limited company on 23rd May 2008 and fully incorporated on 31st October 2009."    
    [[Distinguish among WOW, Inc, WOW Fund, WOW America, NOKE, ]]
     
  • 2008   Festo invests in CyberKite project for demonstrating robust robotic control of cross-winding kite
     
  • 2008, April 6: first power for WPI.        WPI in Namibia 
    Final Report: Kite Power for Namibia, Africa. Project Period: September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2010. 
    http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/8602/report/F
     
  • 2008 April 24:    Ryan Patrick Buckley, Christopher M Colschen, Michael G DeCuir, Max Hurgin, Erik John Lovejoy, Nicholas W Simone. “WIND POWER FROM KITES 2008” MQP, Worcester Polytechnic Institute April 24, 2008
     
  • 2008, April 15:  SWPC is the exclusive licensee of the U.S. Patent No. 6,781,254 [[Windmill kite]] patent pursuant to a written agreement dated April 15, 2008.   [tag: Baseload, Sky Windpower,] [["We conclude that the Settlement Agreement did not release the defenses of invalidity and unenforceability."]]  [[Note, aside from the parties' disputes, in the public domain is the ability for anyone to develop, fly, and sell and use flying wind generators of many types and means. See all early kite energy patents to know such things.]]  
    http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-federal-circuit/1537789.html
     
  • May 23, 2008   Wind Operations Worldwide S.p.A. (WOW SpA) was established in Leghorn as a limited company on 23rd May 2008 and fully incorporated on 31st October 2009.    http://wow.pe/en/   "to own shares"   AWE focus.  [[ Explore NOKE, S.r.l., also.  And NET, Scrl ??  And WOW W3 Investment Ltd. ???  WOW Inc. is American branch of WOW SpA  ???   ]]
     
  • 2008  WO/2008/101390  A method and a special equipment converting wind energy at high altitude into kinetic energy on the ground. 28.08.2008 F23D 9/00 PCT/CN2008/000255 by Fuli Li. Application language: Chinese.
     
  • 2008  July 18: Provisional application for patent entered. Filed: July 17, 2009  
    Tether handling for airborne electricity generators.        Joseph A. Carroll of Chula Vista, CA (USA)
    Assignee: Baseload Energy, Inc., of Portland, Oregon (USA) 
    Provisional application No. 61/081,960 on July 18, 2008.
     
  • 2008 April 1: Gaylord G. Olson filed provisional patent application No. 61/072,570, filed Apr. 1, 2008, entitled Wind Responsive Power Generation System.  The patent was granted as US Pat. 7861973 on January 4, 2011.
     
  • 2008  US Patent 7709973   Airborne stabilized wind turbines system by Moshe Meller, Sep 18, 2008.
     
  • 2008 article:  Long-Term Laddermill Modeling for Site Selection, B. Lansdorp, R. Ruiterkamp, P. Williams, and W. Ockels, AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference 2008.
     
  • 2008   $5 million more for Makani Power from Google.
     
  • 2008   

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Optimal Crosswind Towing and Power Generation with Tethered Kites”. AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2008. doi: 10.2514/1.30089

    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "Analysis of complex inflatable structures using a multi-body dynamics approach". AIAA 2009-2338, 49th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Schaumburg, IL, USA, 7-10 April 2008. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Nonlinear Control and Estimation of a Tethered Kite in Changing Wind Conditions”, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2008. doi: 10.2514/1.31604

    B. Lansdorp, R. Ruiterkamp, P. Williams, W.J. Ockels: "Long-Term Laddermill Modeling for Site Selection". AIAA-2008-6690, AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, Hawaii, 18-21 August 2008. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Modeling, Simulation, and Testing of Surf Kites for Power Generation”. AIAA 2008-6693, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 18-21 August 2008. pdf

    P. Williams, B. Lansdorp, W.J. Ockels: “Modeling of Optimal Power Generation using Multiple Kites". AIAA 2008-6691, AIAA Modelling and Simulation Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 18-21 August 2008. pdf
     

     

  • 2008 May 23    Wind Operations Worldwide S.p.A. (WOW SpA) is a financial holding, founded in Leghorn, as WOW Srl, on 23rd May 2008 and turned into WOW SpA on 31st October 2009.
     
  • 2008 June    June 2008 - Tech Connect Summit - Boston. MA    WindLift.     Speaker: Robert Creighton
     
  • 2008    Furey, A.D.J. and Harvey, I. (2008).'Robust Adaptive Control for Kite Wind Energy Using Evolutionary Robotics'. Biological Approaches to Engineering, pages 117-120. Southampton, UK. pdf
     
  • 2008     Furey, A.D.J. and Harvey, I. (2008). Adaptive Behavioural Modulation and Hysteresis in an Analogue of a Kite Control Task. In proc of Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour (in print) pre-print df

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2009

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2010

  • 2010 January 13. An announcement that a large investment will be made to construct a commercial utility-scale HAWP project in the city of Foshan, China.  China’s first high-altitude wind power project settled in Foshan City of S. China's Guangdong Province   
     

  • January 2010:  KitePower: Starting with a maiden flight in January 2010, the 20 KW technology demonstrator has been systematically improved and has completed the key milestone of automatic operation in spring 2012.
     

  • 2010 Jan. 15:     Toydemir, C. Kuthan                  See: M3041
     

  • Circa January 2010: a paper as a proposal regarding AWE to Chief Technologist in an effort to obtain some study funds (did not get the funds at that time): High Altitude Wind Power by Dave North
     

  • 2010 March 1–3: Three HAWP companies had booths at ARPA-E Technology Showcase, Gaylord Convention Center, Washington, DC. Investment and showcasing by HAWP entities: Joby Energy, Sky Windpower, Makani Power directed visitors to each other's booths
     

  • 2010 March 6. Eight airborne wind energy technology entity leaders in USA held a telephone conference and decided without objection to propose a modification to bill HR 3165  Wind Energy Research and Development Act of 2009  the primary line-item proposed modification entered to a congressional member was the inclusion of "airborne wind energy technology."
     
  • 2010 March 8-10     Lorenzo Fagiano presented the Kitenergy technology at ICREGA Conference.
     
  • 2010  March 15    "The construction site of the first non-mobile prototype of KiteGen has started yesterday "(2010-03-15).       KiteGen
     
  • 2010  April:    Allister Furey (Pavana Dynamics) wins:   Allister Furey won a Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award for April 2010 with his business Pavana Dynamics.  
     
  • 2010 April 24. Multiple chaotic systems effectively captured for useful work: Full demonstration of working mini-AWECS involving Double Pendulum and flapping kite wing-mill under lifter kite to drive clockworks system's charging lithium battery by KiteLab of Ilwaco, Washington, USA. Designer and builder: Dave Santos.  FairIP

     
  • 2010, May 6: Provisional patent application by Quinn L. Larson
     
  • 2010  May 11:   Guest lecture Allister Furey "Using Neural Networks for Kite Control"  at TU Delft.
     
  • 2010 May 18: Guest lecture Dr. Lorenzo Fagiano "Control of tethered wings for high-altitude wind energy generation" on 18 May 2010 at TU Delft.
     
  • 2010 A consortium of four flygen companies: Airborne Wind Energy Consortium
     
  • 2010 May: USA's NASA firms attention on AWECS by establishing an AWT data web site: NASA Wind Energy Airborne Harvesting System Study. The NASA 2010 Innovation Fund selected Airborne Wind Turbine Energy Harvesting UAV Systems; project leader is Dr. Mark D. Moore, Aeronautics Systems. Technology Gateway 

     
  • 2010 May: "And my personal life-time's ambition is to make a craft that could fly anywhere by the difference in the velocities in the air at low and high altitudes. The wings could be made to be neutrally buoyant to where one could float at 5000 feet say and the other at 2000 feet."  ~~Wayne German.  Source.
     
  • 2010, June 16 An international partnership between Dutch and Norwegian entities provides second-round financing for classic reel-in HAWP method using tethered PowerPlane system. Airborne wind energy technology firm Ampyx Power partners with Byte and Statkraft.   Energy Startup Ampyx Power secures further financing.
     
  • 2010 16 June 2010 A unique treasure of 700+ drawings by airborne wind energy technologist Dave Santos made from 2006 and into 2009 were made available to the public. Seven-hundred pages of drawings made from 2006 into 2009 by hand and mind of Dave Santos Alternate full name: David Santos Gorena-Guinn, roboticist, artist, founder of KiteLab, master instructor for KitePilotSchool, and chief technical officer for Airborne Wind Energy Industry Association (AWEIA).  
     
  • First Airborne WT Meeting  at LaRC, NASA Monday June 28, 2010 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM  1290-120H
     
  • 2010 July 9: World's First Gondola Turbine Array Demo by KiteLab.
     
  • 2010 July 12, Monday, Bldg 1209, Rm 113A Conference Room  LaRC  Additional discussion of concept decomposition, roadmapping. 
     
  • 2010, Monday July 19, 2010 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
    Bldg 1209, Rm 113A Conference Room  LaRC
     
  • 2010 July 27:        kiteplane towtest July 27th 2010    video      Jeroen Breukels
     
  • 2010, August:   Reinhart Paelinck joined the K.U. Leuven Kite Power research team.
    "Richard White of Vigyan will come to discuss his efforts with Magenn, which is a buoyant airship wind turbine system."   E. Richard White
     
  • 2010  Communication en vue du XXIe Congrès mondial de l’énergie CME Montréal 2010
    World Energy Congress, Montreal 2010 September 12-16.  Pierre Benhaïem well represented AWECS and AWEIA at the large meeting.     See also: OrthoKiteBunch (OKB)
     
  • 2010 September 10:   BASELOAD ENERGY INC v. ROBERTS  
    BASELOAD ENERGY, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Bryan W. ROBERTS, Defendant-Appellee.
    United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. No. 2010-1053.  "    This action represents the second round of litigation between these parties and their affiliates concerning a so-called “flying electric generator” (“FEG”)." [[What was the decision of the court?]]
     
  • 2010 August 12   KitePlane test video by Jeroen Breukels.
    Onboard camera during Kiteplane flight at Valkenburg Airport
     
  • 2010 August 13: Filing for patent in France   by Pierre Benhaïem. 
     
  • 2010 __________   $3 m of ARPA-E funding to Makani Power.   (See 2006 for a Google funding.)
  • 2010  One article in May states that Makani Power was seeking $25 million and that up to that point they had priorly gained $20 million.  Whether or not they have gained the new sought amount is not known to this page.  M2938
     
  • 2010 September 29–30 Airborne Wind Energy Conference 2010. This complements the 2009 November first major international conference.      Presentations here.
     
  • 2010 October: The Wayne German Prize for Contributions to Airborne Wind Energy stated its second year awardee.   In 2009: Dave Lang, Dave Culp, and Dave Santos. In 2010: Joe Faust.
     
  • 2010  Super Density Operations (SDO) by KiteLab, Ilwaco, Washington, USA.
     

  • 2010 November 25: CONOPS are being drafted by KiteLab, Ilwaco, WA, USA, and also NASA AWT project leader for submission to the USA's FAA toward obtaining response for potentially having airborne wind energy conversion systems as an integral part of aviation and air space.  Correspondence between NASA, KiteLab, and UpperWindpower editor, November 25, 2010. All AWE stakeholders have been invited to help draft the CONOPS.
     

  • 2010 November 27:  http://www.aspoitalia.it/blog/nte/2010/11/27/procede-la-costruzione-del-primo-kitegen-stem/
     

  • 2010  December        Timeline for AWE international industry announced it is open for timeline points. Over 400 persons are identified as  working toward advancing tethered aviation and kites that do work from energy captured from upper winds.  "kites" include LTA and HTA types as well as liquid-"flying" paravanes.
     

  • 2010    A. de Wachter: "Power from the skies - Laddermill takes Airborne Wind Energy to new heights". Leonardo Times - Journal of the Society of Aerospace Engineering Students 'Leonardo da Vinci', Nr. 4, pp. 18-20, 2010.

    2010    S.G.C. de Groot, J. Breukels, R. Schmehl, W.J. Ockels: “Multibody system reduction for derivation of a flight dynamics model for real-time control of kites”. Manuscript, submitted to AIAA Journal Guidance, Control and Dynamics.

    2010    E.J. Terink, J. Breukels, R. Schmehl, W.J. Ockels: “Flight Dynamics and Stability of a Tethered Inflatable Kiteplane”. Manuscript, accepted for publication in AIAA Journal of Aircraft. doi: 10.2514/1.C031108

    2010   J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: “Simulation of a flexible arc-shaped surf kite”. Manuscript, submitted to AIAA Journal of Aircraft.

    2010   J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "A Multi-Body System Approach to the Simulation of Flexible Membrane Airfoils". Manuscript, submitted to Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio (AIDAA).

    2010    J. Breukels, W.J. Ockels: "Simulation of a Three Dimensional Flexible Sail Wing with an Inflated Tubular Spar". Manuscript, submitted to Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio (AIDAA).
     

  • 2010      WACAP 2010, presentation by Prof. Dr. Wubbo Ockels.  
     
  • 2010     M2776     Investors and PR firms form a sector of the K3 birthing.
     
  • 2010   New Google tool: Sample over the phrase ram air turbine: http://tinyurl.com/ramairturbine   showing apparent reference from 1920s forward.
     
  • 2010 September 2:    Atena tests development prototype.
     
  • 2010 November 30:      Ampyx Power   presented at TEDx Amsterdam on November 30th. Bas Lansdorp presented the PowerPlane concept at TedXAmsterdam which was held in the Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam, on the 30th November 2010.  
    Video:     TEDxAmsterdam 2010 - Bas Lansdorp - 11/30/10
     
  • 2010 The question of how AWECS will use airspace in cooperation with other airspace interests is present in various working circles.
     
  • 2010 summer: Gion and Simmerer came up with the idea for this record-breaking trip in summer of 2010.
    WindExplorer.      "Electromobility powered by regenerative energies."         [Someone one day will use only kitricity to make a similar journey.]
     
  • 2010 December 6:  NASA Airborne Wind Energy Report  by Mark Moore, Aeronautical Systems Analysis Branch, NASA Langley.     Format: PowerPoint.      Document
     
  • 2010 Dec. 15  IPP: Capturing Wind Energy Through Airborne Platforms
    IPP :: Innovative Partnerships Program    NASA    
     
  • 2010 Dec. 15:  Guest lecturer      Dr. Alexander Bormann, CEO of EnerKite, will give a guest lecture in the frame of the M.Sc. course Kite Power & Propulsion (TU Delft course code AE4T40). 
     
  • ________  Altius Wind Energy.      Colm O'Gairbhith    
  • Laboratori D'Envol
     
  • 2010  December 26.    Kiter JoeF reached "trees are kites" after having two years of meditation over another poet's "leaves are kites in children's mind".  A loose lifting gliding body as such is not a kite; a kite requires a tether and a resistive mooring which moves or not; a kite consists of mooring, tether, and lifting body; trees having leaves in the wind are kites as the root and trunk form the mooring; the branches and stem form the tether system; the leaves form the lifting bodies.  More: Trees birth gliders in several ways: fallen leaves are gliders, many tree seeds dropping become gliders; some broken fallen branches become gliders. Tree as kite form a kite with many lifting parts and many sub tethers. In severe storms an uprooted flying tree becomes a dynamically soaring kite system. Inasmuch as wafting stems and branches play to pump and play a biological role, trees are generating conversion of wind energy in several ways.   We are searching for the proper date of the poem that held Stanza II:  From a long poem, stanza II by Pablo Rosenblueth                 
                      II
                     The steps draw stories
                     On the playground
                     The leaves are kites
                     In children's mind
     
  • 2010  December 27:  With large smile JoeF received a gift that allowed him to see clearly how he was a kite. Even an AWECS! Humans are kites. Humans are AWECS when placing themselves in the wind.   An era is punctuated!
     
  • 2010 December 28:   Trees are kites with solar-energy conversion  as well as wind-energy conversion systems.   Such natural model may inform artificial AWECS for having multiple energy conversion systems in one AWECS.    JoeF
     
  • End of 2010 we got the construction permit and operation license to build our test track.  ~Uwe Ahrens, NTS
                      

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2011           The AWE Race is on ....

  • 2011 January 4: Granted patent:   Wind responsive power generation system 
    US Pat. 7861973 granted on January 4, 2011.    Filed:     March 25, 2009        Gaylord G. Olson
     
  • NASA involvement advances AWE synergy
     
  • KiteLab, Ilwaco, WA, USA continued instruction on SDO.
     
  • In 2011 we designed and constructed our first test track and since September 2012 after only 21 month we produced first time energy on our site (see picture in addendum)     NTSinTechGroupAWES   |  NTSinEnergyKiteSystems
     
  • narec     joins a member of AWEIA       Jan. 11, 2011.
     
  • Jan. 15, 2011:  To: ASRS:  Wake turbulence hazard (WTH) of airborne wind energy conversion systems (AWECS) may not have been studied yet. We do not want aircraft surprised by the downwind WTH of AWECS. UTAS (unmanned tethered aerial systems) have the no-fly-into-tether obstruction but the yet-to-be-understood WTH. Perhaps someone in ASRS could coordinate with Mark D. Moore of LaRC for studies and mitigations. Thank you.  ~JoeF
     
  • Jan. 15, 2011: To: ViGYAN, Inc.  Wake turbulence hazard of large AWECS 
    Yet to be studied or clarified adequately is the wake turbulence hazard profiles of airborne wind energy conversion systems (AWECS). Perhaps your work with Magenn could become an asset toward your potential leadership in measuring, describing, and communicating the WTH of AWECS. Your Bob White has already interfaced with Mark D. Moore of the LaRC AWE Systems study. Wishing you and your team the best,
    ~Joe Faust
     
  • Jan. 15, 2011:  AWEIA international is advancing some concerns to the NASA Airborne Wind Energy Harvesting System Study (AWEHSS); alternative phrase: NASA Wind Energy Airborne Harvesting System Study  NWEAHSS.
     
  • Jan. 15, 2011:  Milestone reached:  "Just got back from Windless Kite Fest where a successful KiteLab demo of towing a kite in small circles from three fixed points was demonstrated. This is a milestone in the quest for cheap persistent station-keeping." ~ Dave Santos   See more on this:  M2917
     
  • Jan. 16c, 2011.: SkyMill Energy is at the World Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi. (then on to India to visit potential AWE tech support sources and Indian VC organizations who are interested in SkyMill)       wiki/Abu_Dhabi
     
  • Jan. 17, 2011: Tracking control with adaption of kites  by J. H. Baayen and W. J. Ockels 
     
  • Jan. 19, 2011: Passage announced.  AWECS Joy    along with good counterpoints.
  • 2011 February announced: World kite Museum  
     
  • Jan. 20, 2011 TU Delft KitePower: Laddermill 2011: start of a new year of airborne wind energy development    
     
  • Jan. 21, 2011:    Jeroen Breukels was scheduled to defend his PhD on An Engineering Methodology for Kite Design on 21 January 2011 at 10:00h at the Aula of Delft University of Technology.   Abstract of thesis and link on that page for the dissertation.    Big file: 58 MB:   PDF       Congratulations!      M3032
     
  • Feb. 4, 2011:  Andrea Papini produces art of concept AeroKite.
  • Feb. 10:  DSM Venturing invests in SkySails GmbH & Co. KG, leader in traction AWECS.   http://www.motorship.com/news101/dsm-invests-in-wind-propulsion-firm-skysails       M3078    
  •  
  • Feb. 22, Tuesday:  Talk by Jorn Baayen of
    Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics (DIAM)    >> M3125   
    Tue 22 Feb 2011 15:00-16:00, ESAT 00.68
    "Tracking control with adaption of kites"    [See related paper.]
     
  • Feb. 28: News indicates that Cargill signed as customer of SkySails GmbH & Co. KG for a 320 sq. meter kite system for traction shipping.   News.   This seems to be the first large-scale kite-energy sales to a customer; but as yet full description of earlier install relationships need to be studied; about ten or so other ships have been fitted under some partnering relationship.
     
  • Popular Mechanics, March issue, 2011        M3079  
     
  • KiteGen team is that small scale kite flights have just begun on site.   ??circa May, 2011???
     
  • SkyHigh™    SkyHigh Fund™     Announcement: M3805

 

  • April 28-May2 and May 6-8 of 2011:
    I shall present FlygenKite and AWE (perhaps for the first time for this manifestation) at the Concours Lépine International Paris, Pavillon 7.3/Foire de Paris, Parc des Expositions, Paris, France,   2011 April 28-May 8.

    Schedules: from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., excepted April 29 and May 3-5:from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and May 6 :from 10 a.m. to 11.p.m. .  Number of my stand: II 7.     I shall be on my stand April 28-May 2 and May 6-8.     ~~ Pierre Benhaïem

     

  • May 2011.  VisVentis                Robert Copcutt            
     
  • May 24 and 25 of 2011.2011  An airborne wind energy conference will be in
    Belgium, Leuven      http://www.awec2011.com        May 24 and 25 of 2011.
  • AWEIA welcomes Belgium 2011 attendees 
     
  • May 25, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's speech in 1961 in which he announced the goal of sending an American safely to the moon before the end of the decade. Len Shepard suggested that another young president could take the opportunity to achieve energy independence by the end of this decade, and suggested that people in the audience at AWEC 2010 had solutions.
     
  • SAAB enters AWE arena
     
  • ARPA-E prize competition
     
  • "WOW America"  M3797
     
  • May, 2011:  The WOW delegation personally visited PierreB (who could not attend AWEC2011) in France on their way to the conference.  
     
  • Contest is being designed.
     
  • June, 2011:   AWE Trademark Notice- UpWind, UpWind Fund, etc.
     
  • July 18, 2011:  India Patent # 248480
    A FLUID CURRENT MOTOR FOR EXTRACTING ENERGY FROM THE WIND
    Issue Date: July 18, 2011. Inventor:   DOUGLAS SPRIGGS SELSAM [[Filed:  09/02/2005  Feb. 9, 2005. Priority dates in USA: 2001.]]
    • 248480
      494/DELNP/20
      05
      14/06/2002 14/06/2001
      26/12/2008 DELHI
       
  • SkyHigh™    SkyHigh Fund™     Announcement: M3805 
  • Distributing WOW America Investment
  • WindLift completes $968,000 US Army project.
  • WindLift forwards its newsletter.  Edition: August 8, 2011.
  • Nigerian AWE advances preparation for kite craft toward AWE purposes.
  • Discernment process is evolving regarding KiteGen.
  • WOW "rebellion" ?
  • Makani is highly focused on Wing 7.    Wing 7 flight, July 8, 2011
  • WOW tours US. Visits Selsam Innovations; visits Dave Santos.   Else? August 2011.
     
  • Summer 2011: NASA is reporting progress in exploring tethered flight vehicles with an aim of generating electricity. See: M4037   "Our first attempts are using materials like EPP foam with fiber reinforcement and coatings. The idea is to have an airfoil that can hold a much better profile tolerance than a ram air nylon kite or LEI single skin nylon surf kite and have a thinner section (maybe an 8% thickness-to chord ratio). We built a small 2kW ground-gen unit this summer to start getting test data. We just started testing last week and are starting to get data (kite speed, wind speed, line tension, line reel out/in speed, kite position data via video tracking, servo motor regen power, etc.). We’re flying “manually” now with a joystick controlling the servo motors, but plan to switch to automated flight with video tracking shortly.
                Our main focus is in two areas:  1) improvement in system L/D (kite and line) and 2) development of simple video tracking and kite control software for automated flight." ~ David North
     
  • SkySails Power makes a firm statement:
  • August, 2011:  Concept reveal begins:  Beaujean "hovering turbine"  HERE.
     
  • Gary Osoba makes progress  in FF-AWE:   August 2011
    http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24935
     
  • The World Kite Museum's Indoor Kite Festival. KiteLab Ilwaco performed a public first demonstration of a key proof-of-concept prototype. In 2011 was shown that an anisotropic (weathercocking) kite can be maintained aloft in calm wind by phased tugs from three fixed anchor points.

2012 

  • January 2012
    • 17 January: Claimed first (Jan. 17, 2012) TRL-9 COTS AWES: AWES5404
    • January     The World Kite Museum's Indoor Kite Festival took place last weekend. KiteLab Ilwaco once again performed a This year's demo was portentous. It was briefly shown (at the end of the event) that an isotropic kite can also maintain flight by phased tugs (a radially symmetric Sedgewick U-FO offered by Joe Hadzicki Revolution brand). The significance of this proof is that future megascale arrays can accept wind from any quarter without having to spin, but merely tilt from veering wind in real time.
    • Core advance in bringing pelagic trawling arts into RAD continues by KiteLab, Ilwaco, WA, USA
    • Shunting kites and shunting kite arches are advanced by KiteLab, Ilwaco, WA, USA.
    • v
  • Spring:  KitePower: Starting with a maiden flight in January 2010, the 20 KW technology demonstrator has been systematically improved and has completed the key milestone of automatic operation in spring 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
    • August 25-26, 2012 : Mothra 1 flies
  • September 2012
    • Upper Windpower journal accepts donation from Util, LLC.  The funds will wholly be used to forward AWES literature for the broad AWE RAD movement equitably as founded.
    •  
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
    • AWEIA and AWEC struggle for a new international unification space.
      "cooperation between AWEC and AWEIA on the agenda      "  ... note of Nov. 20, 2012.   GL and MS to meet in December.
    • David Santos resigns from AWEIA, as an experiment. Nov. 17, 2012.
    • Rod Read announces decision to found charitable organization: "form a research charity and start looking for partnership and funding to develop commercial systems"
    •  
  • December
    • ISOAWESTC    open provisional technical committee working on standards potentially
      acceptable to ISO for AWES industry matters.        ISOAWESTC was born on Dec. 6, 2012
    • Near Zero continued to refuse to correct its severe research fail.

2013

  • WOW firms interest in supporting organizing some entity toward a non-profit organization. Discuss: AirborneWindEnergy/message/9081
  • Second AWE Encampment is ongoing in April-May near Austin, Texas, USA. 
    http://utilmovement.wordpress.com/texas-awe-encampment/
  • It becomes very difficult to find stirrings in Magenn Power, Joby Energy, or SkyWindPower; it seems to many that "No one is at home." in those team centers.
  • AWEIA international establishing web site.    aweia.org/new/
  • Util Movement continued support of AWES.
  • Near Zero continues to refuse to correct its severe research fail.
  • One conference being planned in September of 2013 plans a pre-conference "spectacular" event.
  • Call for papers, essays, etc. for online e-book Airborne Wind Energy has (April) attracted a few documents by Sjef Beaujean and many by Dave Santos.  Documents are up for peer review and published freely; review occurs by way of papers and discussions, mostly in the tech forum AirborneWindEnergy.
  • Airbine is offering its trademark to interested parties. Contact: Lynn Potter
  •  
  • v
  • v
  • v
  • v
  • v

2014  

Utility grid bolstered by kitricity.   Is this a first?

January 2014   The AWE community lost a star: Dr. Beaujean.      See: Notice.

April 9, 2014    Earlier today at kFarm, with Ed and Jesse present, we ran the small looping foil for optimization study. For part of the tests, a small storage battery received an incidental charge from the kite-driven hand generator, as we evaluated rigging changes and tunings.

After the flight session (~6 PM local time), on a sudden whim, we connected the battery's 5 V, 1 A output to a new DC-DC upconverter to output 12 V into the grid-tie inverter. All the LED indicator lights lit up, a multimeter displayed upconverted voltage, and the vintage power meter was observed to creep backwards a notch or two. Within 30 seconds the battery was drained of its small charge.

Not the flashiest demo ever, with quite low overall efficiency, and net energy in milliwatt seconds, but its almost surely the first electrons ever pushed onto the Texas grid by kites, and maybe even a world first.      ~ Dave Santos

Discus:    AirborneWindEnergy/conversations/messages/12428

Future:

  • "I've been asked to do an article on a kite-powered ship/boat/watercraft with a turbine mounted underneath it" .  Harry Valentine  
     
  • AWE industry Founders' Circle is published.  Proof of pre-2011 founding actions will be platform for edits to the circle of persons.  Growth of awareness of the AWE community will in part be served by an easy-to-use online data-entry form: Who's Who in AWE International?    WWAWE
     
  • 2012 Fly-offs are invited to occur in Europe and in USA and elsewhere. Send news about any scale fly-off for working AWECS performing any kind of work: sawing, grinding, pumping fluids, generating electricity, moving objects, raising masses, compressing air, producing heat, pulling masses, plowing, etc. .
     
  • Will Popular Science do a comprehensive coverage of KES????
  • Courses at TU Delft
  • Training at KitePilotSchool
  • MP ARPA-E:  test, open reports ?
  • Distributing WOW America Investment
 

 
 

top


WEBMASTER WORKING ON INPUTS from others:

  • _________Dave Santos makes phone call to Dave Culp using AWECS energy, causes lamp to shine using electricity generated from AWECS, uses pilot lifter kite to carry aloft generator driven by HAWT, drives ground-held generator via a tether-tripod system with crank, and performs hundreds of AWECS actions from the KiteLab base in Ilwaco, Washington, USA, and other flight sites.
  • _________ Tethered aviation visionary Wayne German publishes
  • _________ Pierre Benhaïem    and his OrthoKiteBunch
  • _________ Pierre Benhaïem  flygen
  • ________   Massimo Ippolito steps up the pace with KiteGen
  • _________ Russia
  • _________ China
  • _________ Traction conference by Drachen Foundation.
     
  • 2009  Counter-weighted tipping boom coupled with oscillating kite system tether driving ground generator during both left and right motions by Joe Faust and Dave Santos. 
     
  • ________ AWEIA
     
  • _____________  AWEIA identifies  over 370 persons active in the AWECS industry with evidence that such is far less than half of the active population involved in all sectors of AWECS.
     
  • NASA funds an AWE research project under Mark D. Moore.
     
  • wHO AND WHAT AND WHEN?: http://www.k-f-m.com/AA%20Projects_files/RND-lgyromill.jpg
     

  • Experiments with a twin rotor, single bladed gyromill    by Blackler, J.; Barratt, A. J.; Nibbe, H.; Roberts, B. W.
    In Midwest Res. Inst. Fifth Bien. Wind Energy Conf. and Workshop (WW5) p 513-522 (SEE N83-15908 06-44)
     

  • Papers by date
     

  • Other patents  by date.
     

  • Applications for patent in process, dated  World, US,

WHAT IS PRIORITY DATE?  WO 2009092181 A balloon suspension high altitude wind generator apparatus and a wind turbine generator device by LI, Quandong and LI, Yuexiu of China.

WHAT IS PRIORITY DATE?  WO 2009092191  A lifting type high altitude wind generator apparatus and a turbine generator device by LI, Quandong. amd LI, Yuexiu of China.

2006 Sept. 19 priority date  WO/2008/034421  Kite Power Generator by Manfred Franetzki of Germany.    19.09.2006

oN THE WO patents, check the priority dates. on all posted.

Each AWECS team could give their Timeline to this Timeline cause.   M2749   invited inputs.

Second column for patents.

Interest in earnest entry year for ____

 

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