On the small models, direct drive. On the larger Blackbird, there are ratchets which only come into play of you brake quickly. The ratchets keep the mass of the rotating propeller from shearing off the drive if one has to stop quickly in an emergency. Under normal operation is is effectively...
There are no blueprints, but for the Blackbird there are near a thousand construction pics at www.fasterthanthewind.org
It's very simple -- the rear axle is connected to the prop shaft through a long twisted bicycle chain.
On the small models you see on Youtube, a right angle drive...
If by "potential energy" you mean something other than the mass of one fluid moving relative to another (or surface) and the kinetic energy contained thus, then the reason it isn't used in an explanation or video is that it would be flat wrong. There is NO other energy involved in accelerating...
Ok, got it. I was pretty sure from your previous posts that "A" wasn't what you meant, but didn't want to move forward without confirmation.
Thanks.
It appears that what you are saying the examples I have in that post can and do happen, you just don't believe they can be explained through...
Before I respond I really must clarify something.
Sailboats sail upwind all the time. They can leave a point downwind and readily arrive at a point directly upwind of where they were by simply sailing towards a point situation to the right (or left) of the upwind goal, and then once...
Nothing fancy -- simple straightforward fluid mechanics involved and it's not even anything new, having been done for hundreds (thousands?) of years. A simple flip of the environment (viewed from the perspective of a fish for example) easily shows that the keel of the very first boat to ever...
@kmarinas86:
It appears that you do not believe that traditionally rigged sailing vessels (be they on land, water or ice) do not and cannot achieve VMGs of greater than wind speed while on a steady course heading. This is simply not true. Until you correct this aspect of your physics...
If that's a serious question on your part I'm going to have to conclude you aren't serious about the exchange.
You have asserted is that the BB is not equipped with sails. Several people have asked you for your definition of a "sail" and you have yet to respond. I only pointed out that *if*...
rorix, you may wish to have your own definition of "sail", but if that definition allows for a 'hard sail' (airfoil/wing) as is used in say the America's Cup races, then the Blackbird does indeed have the same sails use in the same manner.
Literally, the only functional difference between the...