(Mostly) Borne on the Wind Across Australia

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Wind surfing across southern Australia, a German team showed ingenuity and skill in a 3,000 mile journey that, as their web site boasts, used “no electricity mains, no gasoline,” and produced “zero CO2.” TG Daily and Gizmag announced the successful crossing of Australia (Albany to Sydney) by a wind-powered car.  Although the car carried a telescoping mast and small wind turbine to recharge its 8 killowatt hour lithium battery pack, the two designer/drivers were forced to plug in to available sources from time to time, accounting for the $15 cost of the powering the expedition.  When possible, they towed the 200 kilogram (440 pound) car with a kite. The Wind Explorer web site proclaims that “Plan[ning] your route with the Wind Explorer is… unique pioneering.  But behind it, how efficient, autonomous and environmentally friendly mobility today can be!” Especially if you are an accomplished kite flyer.  Even more outré than their portable wind turbine, the team used a large kite …

Need Electricity? Go Fly a Kite

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

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 other photographic gear, Bevirt has seen his Gorillapod become a huge success, and expand into Gorillamobile and Gorillatorch versions, hands-free flexible tripods to hold cell phones, flashlights, and other personal electronic devices.    Earlier, he designed robotic systems to aid in biopharmaceutical …