Directorly Downwind Faster than the Wind

[Cloxxki]

Hi OU blokes,

I have already seen videos of a similar(?) toy device that went "Downwind Faster than the Wind"

It is on:
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Directly_Downwind_Faster_than_the_Wind

Perhaps, this guy has *just* enlarged this kinda device?

Very Best

Same team I believe, before they upscaled.

Will we soon see a "wind" class at the RC car races? Very small startup battery allowed for some controls, the rest will have to come from the wind.

[NerzhDishual]

Being 100% uneducated I think sometimes allows me to think outside the box, into the obvious.

I'm just wondering whether achieving OU were not a question of education but mainly a question of daring. Just like Fire Walking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewalking

At the first glance it sounds impossible witout being burnt.
Actually, anybody can safely do it.

[Cloxxki]

This confirmation makes me wonder so many things.

- Rotor size. Does it need to big, or could a smaller prop be imagined that does just as well?

- Vehicle shape. Frontal surface of non-propellor part needs to be minimized, obviously as the vehicle at 3x wind speed still faces 2/3 of its ground speed in headwind.
Would an optimized vehicle be a prop, and nothing else? Or a prop front, then a tapering body behind it, and a smaller prop at the back (air compression, faster air exhaust)?
Although tail wind powers the vehicle, what is it pushing against, physically, if the cart always generates its own headwind? Is the surface of the air displaced aft of the prop important to be large, or is the main point to grab as much air as possible on the front side?

I can't wait to learn about the potential of a relatively small, say 1m across prop being stuck to the roof of a car. A small rotor line coming from the rear axle for instance.
Or better, two 50cm fans alongside a generic bicycle, driven by the rear hub or even the tire.
Could auxiliary props make significant speed and efficiency improvements?

It's probabaly been done already, but I sketched a simple airship. A string tied to a solid structure on the ground on one end, and wrapped around a pulley on the ship, spins a prop. The wire auto-centers the air ship down wind. Lacking wheels , the thing might be pretty darn fast.
I bet a prototype from a party balloon with helium and ultralight fishing line and pulley could be made to work. The balloon is self-supporting and ultra-slick through the air. Would, once the equilibrium speed is reached and the wire is released, the ship continue to speed along, or soon lose its feedback loop? Anything that could prevent this? Else we might see airships of the future throwing out an ancor at 100+mph speeds, and go even faster as a result :-)

[sparks]

  The wind is always moving 14mph relative to the ground.  This provides the power in the system.  Doesnt matter what portion of the wind he is in.  It is a great demonstration that what appears as static is doing work staying static.  Like a motor in a car.  The mounts and frame are doing work resisting the counter torque produced by the engine.  When an aircraft touches down the wheels are motorized to high rpm otherwise the Earth does some work on them heating the rubber up pretty good.  To save on tread the wheels are motorized to reduce this work.  Put some piezo crystals between your motor mounts and the frame.  Theyll generate.  Line a muffler with them.  Theyll generate.  Line a cylinder wall with them and lean out the mixture so you get detonation.  Theyll generate. 

[ramset]

Sparks
Yes the ground is very important here.
This will not work unless connected to the ground,ice or water some how.[yet]
The first time I experienced this [going faster than the wind]
I was 14 years old in the waters of Long Island sound on a catamaran,

There is nothing like it ,and now I see why.
It is very hard for me to get my head around this, When men that race sail boats told me  "its what we call apparent wind ,the sail makes its own wind".

Since they weren't giggling when they said this,I just shrugged and said "OH".
I didn't understand, Knowing in my head that if that where true.

Then something like what we see here is possible.

I'm still having a hard time ,even though I have done this "many" times in the last 40 yrs.
It blows in our faces every day.
The freakin wind!!
WOW
Chet