You might think -- as I did -- a sail-powered vehicle could only achieve slow speeds. Surprise, the world land speed record is 126.1 miles per hour, set in 2009 by Richard Jenkins at Ivanpah Dry Lake in Nevada.
Land sailing is a sport, perhaps more common in Europe than in the U.S. The point is, land sailing vehicles are not unheard of. That noted, however, I wonder if there has been any effort to employ them for transportation. Would these sail mobiles tip over? Would they slide across street lanes? While sail boats have hulls that go beneath the water, to anchor them, the sail carriage has no such advantage.
Ahh, the "sail carriage." I read how they date back at least to the Sixth Century A.D. in China. They were used on the Great Plains, being called "wind wagons." And, did you know a sail vehicle has been proposed for use on Venus?
But, have sail vehicles ever been considered for transportation purposes? Mind you, the reason I explore this idea is that I have been persuaded global warming might well be a reality, and, I believe that if it is a reality, then we should be doing all we can to counter it. This is an important matter, with some urgency. If there are transportation alternatives that do not have greenhouse emissions, we should be considering them, exploring them.
Sail mobiles should not be too quickly dismissed as impractical. The urgency of solving the problem should persuade us to place them on the table as we consider solutions. This would only be a very small part of the solution, but it could be definite help, the same. Whatever miles our nation accumulates on wind power, are miles without greenhouse emissions.
No comments:
Post a Comment