4 ms·
I think my analogy still holds: the vehicle in the video wouldn't work if the wheels were used through a mechanism to simply push the air directly backward. Tha
by gcanyon 3y ago
I think my analogy still holds: the vehicle in the video wouldn't work if the wheels were used through a mechanism to simply push the air directly backward. That would be like having a square-rigger-style sail and using a fan to blow air at it.
Instead, the thing that makes the vehicle work is the ability to use the mechanical(?) advantage of the prop slicing through the air at an angle to improve efficiency. Just as regular sails working at an angle to the wind can move downwind faster than a balloon (illustrated in the video) the angled prop can be used to move the vehicle downwind faster than the wind, but only by moving at an angle to it.