Have you done any torque tests on it yet?  I'll bet it has a very low start up torque but probably has a good steady torque at speed.  I'll have to slab one together to play with sometime this summer!  Great thinking!

I recieved some parts for my single wing VAWT yesterday but things have been so busy here lately I haven't had a chance to modify them and get them in place.  I'm hoping I have some time to finish this up by this weekend.  With the new parts I'm only going to be able to move the wing angle up to 45 degrees and I'm not sure that will be enough.   It will be fine for low winds/ extreemly high torque but it will reduce my original TSR from 2 down to around 1.7.  

Ain't this stuff just way to much fun?!!!

I think that this experiment
is really interesting.

I'm wondering, if it
really performs better than
a well shaped Savonius.

---

I wanted to point out here
the same thing, which I've
posted on this site
already earlier.

Most of the people
have got a wrong opinion
about the efficiency
of the savonius rotor.

According to American
research it is actually
quite good.

Unfortunately
the efficiency is put
wrong in most text books
about wind energy.

See below.

-----

From:

Wind Energy Systems
by Dr. Gary L. Johnson November 20, 2001  
http://www.eece.ksu.edu/~gjohnson/    

----

 Agreement on the efficiency
of the Savonius turbine apparently
has finally been reached a
half century after its development.
Savonius claimed an efficiency
of 31 per cent in the wind
tunnel and 37 per cent
in free air.
However, he commented:
[10] "The calculations of Professor
Betz gave 20 % as the highest
theoretical maximum
for vertical airwheels, which under the
best of circumstances could
not produce more
than 10 % in practical output."
The theoretical
and experimental results failed
to agree. Unfortunately,
Savonius did not specify the shape
and size of his turbine well
enough for others
to try to duplicate his results.

A small unit of approximately
2 m high by 1 m diameter
was built and tested at Kansas
State University during the period
1932-1938[6]. This unit was
destroyed by a high wind, but
efficiencies of 35 to 40 %
were claimed by the researchers.
Wind tunnel tests were performed
by Sandia on 1.5 m high by 1 m
diameter Savonius turbines,
with a maximum efficiency
measured of 25 % for
semicircular blades[1].

Different blade shapes
which were tested at the
University of Illinois showed
a maximum efficiency of
about 35 %[5].
More Savonius turbines
were tested at Kansas State
University, with efficiencies
reported of about 25 %[13, 4].
It thus appears that the Savonius,
if properly designed,
has an efficiency nearly as good as the
horizontal axis propeller turbine
or the Darrieus turbine.
The Savonius turbine therefore
holds promise in applications
where low to medium technology
is required or where the high
starting torque is important.

A chart of efficiency of five
different turbine types
is shown in Fig. 8. The efficiency or
power coefficient varies with
the ratio of blade tip speed
to wind speed, with the peak value
being the number quoted for
a comparison of turbines.
This will be discussed in more detail
in Chapter 4. It may be noticed
that the peak efficiencies
of the two bladed propeller, the
Darrieus, and the Savonius
are all above 30 %, while
the American Multiblade and the Dutch
windmills peak at about 15 %.
These efficiencies indicate
that the American Multiblade is
not competitive for
generating electricity,
even though it is almost
ideally suited and very
competitive for pumping water.

The efficiency curves for
the Savonius and
the American Multiblade have
been known for
a long time[6, 10].
Unfortunately, the labels
on the two curves
were accidentally interchanged
in some key publication
in recent years, with the result
that many authors have used an
erroneous set of curves
in their writing. This historical
accident will probably take years to
correct.

------
------

Anyway, on this funny little thing in the first picture. I like it.
I remember when I was a kid (many years ago) I had an odd ball kite. It had sort of a body and wings as I recall. The wings were similar to what is on that post in the first picture, best as I remember. So I would think your on the right track with the lift Idea here. That kit was great. When the wind blew past the wings they spun, when they spun they created lift, faster the wind the faster they spun the more lift they made.
Why or how it worked I have no idea really, but that thing would fly better than any normal kite.
 As experements (playing) way back then, I do recall toy glider planes. My kite plane tied to the end of a string would fly in the wind with the spinning wings, but a glidder plane would fall to the ground in the same winds with it's stationary wings.
The glider plane would glide if thrown though, my kite plane I don't think did or not very well.

Anyway, I hope this works well, I know that old toy did, and those wings would really get to spinning too. Very fast in a good kite flying wind!

Too bad we can't buy decent stuff like that now adays :(
.
nothing to lose