| Tango01 | 15 Feb 2021 1:20 p.m. PST |
"In a dream, the image came to me of a modern / future ship driven by ring / cylinder sails. (Well, technically I saw something different, but this is what I knew it was supposed to refer to…) That is, these would be short tubes oriented horizontally that could pivot. Is anything close to this design technically workable?…"
From here
link
Amicalement
Armand
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| Insomniac | 15 Feb 2021 1:42 p.m. PST |
You could use a system like the Dyson fan, where air is fed into the duct to provide moving air… |
Extrabio1947  | 15 Feb 2021 1:46 p.m. PST |
I'm not an engineer. And I'm only vaguely familiar with sails. But the concept is intriguing. |
| jfleisher | 15 Feb 2021 2:12 p.m. PST |
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| Zephyr1 | 15 Feb 2021 3:57 p.m. PST |
Already exists, except the cylinder sails are vertical… |
ScottWashburn  | 15 Feb 2021 4:30 p.m. PST |
@jfleisher, yes, I was thinking of that exact same thing: a paper airplane with two cylindrical 'wings' that I'd built many years ago. It flew really well, too. Not sure how conversion to ship propulsion would work, but maybe. |
 Editor in Chief Bill   | 15 Feb 2021 6:07 p.m. PST |
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for writers/artists using science, geography and culture to construct imaginary worlds and settings. |
| Heedless Horseman | 15 Feb 2021 8:57 p.m. PST |
I've seen something 'like' that as a 'concept' many years ago… when 'oil' was going to run out in about year 2000! Can't really see why… the 'old' rigs worked pretty well for a Long time! And, if you NEEDED 'wind', you would need fuel as solar panels would be too heavy… Hmm. 'Extremely' lightweight solar + Wind 'sails', driving some sort of propulsion? It WILL have been 'thought of' ! |
| Grelber | 16 Feb 2021 1:38 p.m. PST |
Too long ago for me to remember the details, but I think cylindrical "sails" were tried out between the wars. These were vertical cylinders. The wind (I think) caused them to spin and the spinning caused the ship to move forward. I believe this is the force you feel when you turn on your electric drill and it tries to push your hand. As a technology, this was competing with steam ships, and did not win out. Grelber |
| Greylegion | 17 Feb 2021 6:57 a.m. PST |
What if the sales were a trapezoid shape? This would funnel the air, right? |
