JoeBen Bevirt is an extraordinary individual – and that’s no hyperbole. Creating a lucrative underpinning with his line of knobby, infinitely-adjustable tripods, cell-phone and iPad™ holders, and LED lights, he has expanded into designing giant kites to fly into upper-atmosphere winds and generate high-output electricity. To loft these kites, he has created a line of motors with the aid of Diederik Marius, shown on the Joby Motors web site, and so far include two versions each of the JM1S and JM2S. Each can be configured with different windings for different applications. The JM1S weighs 1.8 kilograms (3.96 pounds) and can put out 12 kilowatts peak (16 horsepower) at 6,000 rpm. Diminutive, it is only154 millimeters in diameter (6.06 inches) and …
Need Electricity? Go Fly a Kite
What do JoeBen Bevirt and Benjamin Franklin have in common? They both grew up without electricity and built kites to find it. While being without electricity was the default condition in Franklin’s day, JoeBen was raised in a hippy commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Neither man found the deprivations of his youth to be an impediment to creativity. The phrase that keeps popping up in articles about JoeBen Bevirt, founder of Joby, inc. and Joby Energy, is “inveterate inventor.” Inveterate has the sense of growing old in one’s habits, something unlikely to happen to a truly inventive soul such as JoeBen. Deviser of a knobby-looking grip that can be fastened to almost anything, and which can hold cameras, lights, and …