Maiden voyage of first kite sailed cargo ship
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
A few years ago on Radio 4 you may have heard a fascinating interview with a designer who was working on computer controlled sails for cargo ships. Already the design is now being put into practice, with the maiden voyage of the ship Beluga which set sail from Germany for Venezuela on 22 January. This ship has a relatively small sail, but the long term plan is to develop large sails for huge tankers, with the possibility of cutting fuel consumption by 20 percent. The sail flies like a kite hundreds of meters above the ship.
This article has been filed under News.