Hi folks. I'm one of the two primary designers/builders of the
vehicle(s) in question.
I'll try to go back through the posts on the thread and come up with some relevent comments over the next bit, but in the mean time feel free to fire away with any questions you might have.
Basics:
-- the spinning rotor is a propeller, not a turbine
-- the wheels provide the torque to turn the rotor (always).
-- the rotor does not provide the torque to turn the wheels (ever).
-- it will take off from a standing start on it's own.
-- we sometimes push it up to speed to save time during testing
-- there's no "null point' at windspeed.
-- It will maintain it's speed at or well above wind speed indefinitely
-- There is no stored energy used to accelerate the vehicle at any time
-- By design, our particular one works best when aimed directly downwind.
-- One can be built to go faster than the wind in any direction
-- A simple gearing change will cause ours to go upwind rather than down
-- It can work on water or land
Our project (
www.FasterThanTheWind.org) was sponsored by Joby Energy (wind energy research firm) and Google and associated with the Aerospace Engineering department of San Jose State University here in the Silicon Valley.
As mentioned in the OP our vehicles capabilities have now been verified (they installed 18 recording sensors) and a record ratified by NALSA (
www.nalsa.org) at 2.8x the speed of the wind while traveling directly downwind.
There is absolutely no violation of the laws of nature going on here -- and yes, I'm quite happy to provide equations to support the physical evidence.
JB