High-altitude Wind Power - Early References To HAWP

Early References To HAWP

Early centuries of kiting demonstrated that the kite is a rotary engine that rotates its tether part about its mooring point and causes hands and arms to move because of the energy captured from higher winds into the mechanical device. The tension in the lofted devices performs the work of lifting and pulling body parts and things. Airborne wind energy (AWE) for HAWP was birthed thousands of years ago; naming what happened and developing the implied potentials of tethered aircraft for doing special works is what is occurring in AWE HAWP. What is "low" for some workers is "high" for others.

• 1796 George Pocock (inventor) used traction mode to travel in vehicles over land roads.

• 1827 George Pocock's book ‘The Aeropleustic Art’ or 'Navigation in the Air by the Use of Kites or Buoyant Sails' was published. The book was to be republished again several times. The Charvolant or Kite Carriage was described. Importantly Pocock described use of kites for land and sea travel.

• 1833 John Adolphus Etzler saw HAWP blossoming at least for traction.

• 1864? Book's chapter Kite-Ship well describes key dynamics of HAWP used for tugging ships by kites. John Gay's: or Work for Boys. Chapter XVIII in the Summer volume.

• 1943 Stanley Biszak instructed using potential energy in free-flight for converting ambient winds impacting turbine to drive electric generator to charge batteries.

• 1967 Richard Miller, former editor of Soaring magazine, published book Without Visible Means of Support that describes the feasibility of free-flight coupled non-ground-moored kites to capture differences in wind strata to travel across continents; such HAWP is the subject of Dale C. Kramer's contemporary patent application.

• 1973? Hermann Oberth In the appendix of his book Primer for Those Who Would Govern there are sketches and a photograph of a model of the Kite Power Station from the Oberth Museum.

• 1977 April 3, 1977, invention declared. On September 21, 1979, Douglas Selsam notarized his kite-lifted endless chain of airfoils HAWP system, generic type that would later show in Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels' device called LadderMill described in a patent of 1997. Douglas Selsam conceived his Auto-oriented Wind Harnessing Buoyant Aerial Tramway on April 3, 1977. On the Selsam notarized disclosure of invention was placed a date of Sept. 20, while the notary placed the final signing on Sept. 21, 1979. notes and drawings.

• 1979 Professor Bryan Roberts begins giromill gyrocopter-type HAWP wind generator development.

• 1986 Bryan Roberts' AWE HAWP rotor generates electricity and lifts itself in tethered flight.

• 1992 Free Rotor WO/1992020917 Free Rotor by JACK, Colin, Humphry, Bruce (one man). Colin Jack. Colin Bruce. Multi-rotors are treated. Faired tethers are recognized. 1992.