02-08-2017, 12:20 PM
Wind-powered vehicles derive their energy from sails, kites or rotors and ride on wheels that can be attached to a rotor or wind runners. These vehicles share a common feature: As the vehicle increases in speed, the advancing aerodynamic profile encounters an increasing apparent wind with an increasingly smaller angle of attack. At the same time, these vehicles are subject to a relatively low resistance compared to the traditional sailboat. As a result, these vehicles are usually capable of speeds higher than the wind.
Examples of rotor propulsion have demonstrated soil velocities that exceed that of the wind, both directly in the wind and directly in the wind by transferring energy through a drive train between the rotor and the wheels. The wind speed record is for a vehicle with a sail on it, Green-bird, with a top speed recorded of 202.9 kilometers per hour (126.1 mph). Other means of wind transport include sailing vessels that travel on water, and balloons and gliders that travel in the air, all of which are beyond the scope of this article.
