I was going through a bunch of parts and pieces in my shop looking for just the right piece to fabricate into another stupid idea and ran into a couple old projects that I thought I'd share... These were disassembled and in the pile so I dug out what I could to partially assemble them.... don't laugh now...
This one was based on the lift theory and I wanted as much speed as I could get. Each wing follows its own lift path and provides constant torque on the shaft. Well It sort of worked spinning at around 1000 rpm in a 15mph wind but the power output was so low I decided it wasn't worth pursuing and ended up in the pile....
This next one should get a chuckle... Another lift based design. I had figured my ultralight wing would lift 1200 lbs at 30 mph it has a wing span of 29 ft and a cord of around 4ft. This little gem was an off spring of what a wing will lift...
The wing span on this is 2 ft and a cord of 8 inches. This actually works quite well ( still ). In a 15 mph wind it will lift 50 lbs 1 inch 60 times per minute. It runs fairly slow ( 30 rpm). Each wing runs opposite of the other when one is on its way up the other is on its way down. It runs on a crankshaft and the wings are timed to change angles at the top and bottom of each stroke. The timing on the wing angle change is simply 90* from the power stroke. It basically works like an engine only using the wind as the input power and the wings would be the "pistons". Its built and timed just like a stirling engine and the offset of the crank throw reangles the wings properly. Slow turning and an extreem amount of torque. I had always planned to build a larger one to put on the barn and have a spare 14 ft wing section I saved for the project....
Here is a closer shot of the crank...j
Ok you can laugh now.... I really should put together all the parts and pieces in their original form and post them on my site... could be fun! There are probably a dozen or more out there that are just as strange or stranger....
Just having fun as always...
Windstuff Ed