Bid for world land-speed record
Two British men are preparing to break the world land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle.
Eco-entrepreneur Dale Vince OBE and engineer Richard Jenkins will try to beat the current record of 116mph at Lake LeFroy in Western Australia.
Their British designed and built craft, named Greenbird, is carbon-netural.
Gloucester-based Vince said they were following in the footsteps of Donald Campbell whose Bluebird they drew inspiration from for the name.
The founder of Stroud-based renewable energy supplier Eco-Tricity said: “Campbell did it with the prevalent fuel of the day - we’re doing it with the prevalent fuel of tomorrow.
“Donald Campbell had his massive cubic capacity engines and energy dense fossil fuels - we have just the wind.
“But the wind will still be here in 50 or 100 years time - the age of renewables has been a long time coming (back) but will endure.”
The Greenbird relies on solid sails like an aircraft wing.
In the same way that airflow over an aircraft’s horizontal wing pushes the aircraft up, the flow of air over The Greenbird’s vertical sail pushes the vehicle forward.
This force, combined with exceptional efficiency, enables the land craft to travel between four to six times the real wind speed, depending on the surface traction.
The team will also make a challenge on the Ice World Speed Record, again using wind power alone.<p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
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