This article is part of the2022 April 1stseries in theHumortopic within ourSeries Library。
我最新的作业电子设计带我去了布莱尔斯敦机场（Blairstown Airport），该机场位于新泽西州的茫茫荒野中，我将与替代能力创业公司Tethergy LLC的首席执行官Benissimo Frankolini博士一起吃早餐。
我们同意在唐娜的跑道咖啡馆见面，这是一个很小的关节，似乎陷入了1950年代。这是该地区飞行员的最爱，他们很乐意飞行100英里或更长时间，以享受一片自制的派，并从每张桌子上欣赏跑道的景色。馅饼和视图与承诺一样好。但是，经过30分钟的时间超过了我们指定的时间，Frankolini仍然没有到达。
I'd just finished my fourth cup of Donna's impressively strong coffee, when the café door flew open and the rumpled figure of the CEO, also Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, hurtled into the café, out of breath and practically stumbling into my outstretched handshake.
With Dr. Benissimo Frankolini and his co-pilot Pepper at the controls, Tethergy's first technology demonstrator proved that it’s possible to use a tethered gyrocopter as an aerial wind generator. (Image credit: NBC andSlate）
After the good doctor settled into our booth and ordered up a slice of mile-high coconut custard, he shared some of the details of his latest clean-tech venture:
ED:I'm glad you made it!
BF:我也是!我们有一个问题的units, so I had to coordinate our ground crew with state police to go find it. But, Lee and I go back to his days at RCA Astro. We did some interesting work and got into some interesting mischief back then, including, among other things,项目I.R.A。! He's always been there for me when I needed him so I'm glad to return the favor!
ED:很高兴您做到了，谢谢。因此，也许您可以告诉我一些关于您自己的信息，以及为什么我们在这里，除了馅饼...
BF:当然。我的家人从意大利都灵移民到该地区。这非常靠近我长大的房子，在我学习博士学位时，我在学期之间度过了一段时间。普林斯顿的物理学。
ED:Wait, you're old enough...
BF:Yes, Dr. Einstein was one of my profs. Everybody asks
ED:You changed oil on...?
BF:当然不是。所以，再次告诉我，为什么戈德堡派 *你 *？
ED:Sorry, it took me a sec. Ok, so you took glider lessons and had family in the area. Why are we here?
BF:我的医疗已过期，但无论如何，我稍后再带您来抚养您的滑翔机，让您体验原因。简而言之，该领域的独特地质，即Kittatinny Ridge，为我们提供一些独特的层流风电流，可产生如此强大的波电流，以至于可以将滑翔机提升到12,000英尺MSL。如果您考虑一下，那里有一些很薄的空气。
ED:OK, but what's that have to do with alternative energy?
BF:嗯,我想我必须拼出来的。看, there are two ways to get a glider into the air. One is being towed up by another plane, and the other is to use a winch with a very long tow cable. The ground-based winches accelerate the glider to flying speed while the glider executes a very steep climb to anywhere between 700 and 1,000 feet before releasing the cable. So about three years ago, while doing my preflight, it dawned on me: What if I climbed up to 1,000 feet during a tow, but didn't release the winch cable?
ED:你会有一个昂贵的风筝...
BF:正确的。But there's tremendous energy at that altitude and above, so what if we winch-launched a small private aircraft, like a Cessna or a Piper, on a nice, windy, day? If there was enough wind, could we leave the engine off and keep it tethered?
ED:啊，我知道你要去哪里。螺旋桨会“风车”，对吗？
BF:正确的。如果我们使用绞车高高地，则不需要发动机 - 我们可以用发电机替换它。
ED:Ok, I see how you could generate some amount of electricity that way. But from my experience as a pilot, I don't think you can get a whole lot of power out of a windmilling prop.
BF:当然不是。If you compare the diameter of the propeller arc diameter to that of a modern wind turbine, say 200 to 300 feet, it's pretty clear that the prop doesn't produce much power.
ED:
BF:
ED:像直升机？
BF:You're close, but we actually went with something simpler—a gyrocopter. You may have seen them in movies like疯狂的麦克斯, or James Bond’sYou Only Live Twice, that a “gyro” doesn’t power its rotor, but instead provides thrust by a separate propeller and the rotor turns and provides lift. We don't have a propeller; we have the wind waves coming over The Ridge, acting against the winch tether which, in this case, we didn't release. That turns the rotor, maintaining an altitude where winds are steady and fast. Besides providing the necessary lift, the rotor uses most of the energy it extracts from the airstream to drive an electrical generator.
ED:您使用陀螺仪的系绳将产生的电力发送到地面？
BF:正确的。
ED:So, when do you expect to test your theory with a prototype?
BF:实际上，几年前，我们与一个小型技术演示者一起做到了这一点。测试是如此成功，以至于我们扩大了设计的规模，并在离这里不远的空气中有四个，校正，三个静电性。每个人都在吸收Kittatinny Ridge的稳定上升气流，并将其变成兆瓦的清洁能源。
Telethergy was able to bring its first four Mk.1 electrogyros on line within 18 months by retrofitting the airframes of existingFairey Rtodynes带有束缚硬件，较大的转子和1.2兆瓦的发电机。直到改造为1950年代时代的英国compound gyroplanewas believed to be the largest passive rotor aircraft built to date. (Image credit: J Thinesen, SFF photo archive)
We actually have four machines, one of which just went down for maintenance this morning. The reason I was late was because the fourth gyro's diamond fiber tether snapped and it went into freeflight mode. Our engineering team thankfully anticipated this failure mode and installed an Arduino-based GPS autopilot that would land in a predetermined open field 20 miles uprange.
Anyway, I got the call around 5 am and it took us a while to secure the unit and get it ready for transport back to our hangar. I hope the delay didn't cause you too much inconvenience.
ED:关于系绳为什么要抢购的任何想法吗？
BF:It's too early to tell, but I suspect a manufacturing defect—likely a lattice dislocation—in the 5,000-foot-long monocrystalline diamond fiber tether. But we did check the date code on the cable assembly just before I got here. It’s 04-01-20.
ED:Sorry to hear that, I hope you get your fourth generator back in the air soon. But, whatever happens, please keep us posted on any further developments. And, for now, let's have another slice of that pie.
Read more articles in the2022 April 1stseries in theHumortopic within ourSeries Library。
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