If We Want Bigger Wind Turbines, We're Gonna Need Bigger Airplanes

14 Brajeshwar 8 9/13/2025, 2:28:38 PM spectrum.ieee.org ↗

Comments (8)

Kaibeezy · 1h ago
Were we not getting airships for this purpose? The ones with a butt?

A diagram comparing it to the 747s and oil tankers mentioned in the text would have been appreciated.

OK, looked it up. 108m v 72m. Kvikk diagram, pretty much to scale:

       ,    ||
   WR  ============
       ‘    ||

       ,  \\
   747 ========
       ‘  //
ricksunny · 1h ago
(what is a kvikk diagram - google isn’t helping here)
skyyler · 35m ago
wild guess: a distorted "quick"
Kaibeezy · 15m ago
p1mrx · 41m ago
Sadly, an LLM rejected my idea of building an enormous helicopter drone from wind turbine blades. They can't spin fast enough to generate sufficient lift.
eightysixfour · 2m ago
Alternative, can you make a turbine blade that can be an (inefficient) wing when bolted to a fuselage and engine? Effectively fly the blade there, using it as a lifting surface area.
IshKebab · 30m ago
Why is that sad? That's way outside LLM training sets.
p1mrx · 12m ago
It's a fairly straightforward physics question, and Gemini Pro thinks the thrust to weight ratio is too low, by more than an order of magnitude, even before adding the weight of the frame and propulsion system.