Well norm as soon as I read your comment regarding maple seeds on my single blade post I knew I had to do it. 20 minutes later I had a 2" diameter single blade wind turbine that shocked me into thinking my plan may actually work!
I went outside and under the old maple tree I found myself a couple dozen wings, singles that is, took 'em in and started launching them in the air till I could narrow down which one flew the best. Next I located the center of mass by balancing the maple wing on the side of a pin, interestingly it was located about where the wing ends and the seed pod begins,(must be a fluke) so I took a half a dozen more and balanced them as well and they to had their center of mass in about the same locations(just a bunch of flukes I guess). Next step - I took a straw and a pin, poked the pin through the straw, then poked a cut up piece of straw on the pin as a thrust washer, then you guessed it, on went the maple wing. I poked it at the center of mass location giving it some pitch, took it back off, dabbed a tincy bit of hot glue on the wing over the hole and stuck it back on.
It took some fiddling with the pin to get it loose enough in the straw to spin freely but once it loosened up I could get what looked like several hundred rpm just by gently blowing on it. Of course I needed to test it in a more significant wind so I pulled out the fan cranked it to ludicrus speed and the maple wing turbine disappeared from sight, it must have been doing well over a thousand rpm. Cool, cool, cool.
Thanks Norm for an evenings entertainment. Any idea how many watts I might get?
Sorry no pics, my camera hasn't recovered from its fall to the floor yet.
I dare more people to try this out.