Airship power turbine
OwnerWilliam J. Mouton, Jr., David F. Thompsoninventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Power is mechanically transmitted from a tethered airship carrying wind turbines to electrical generators on the ground at the anchor point of the tether, by the use of endless power-transmission cables bridging between drive sheaves at the turbine wheels and driven sheaves at the generators. Tether adjustments, cable tensioning, and wind direction changes are provided for the ground apparatus. A tubular aircraft with recess in the tube wall, carrying bearings on which the rims of the turbine wheels ride, is also claimed.
Claims12
In a lighter-than-air craft tethered in the wind by a tether leading from the craft to the ground, the improvement comprising (a) a nozzle having a tubular wall, an entrance end, and a discharge end, and a vena contracta between said ends, said nozzle passing through said craft, said entrance end opening at the windward end of said craft, and said discharge end opening at the leeward end of said craft, whereby wind is intercepted and guided through said nozzle, said nozzle having at the vena contracta an annular recess in its tubular wall,
- (b) annular bearing structure mounted in said recess,
- (c) turbine wheel means comprising at least one turbine wheel carried on said bearing structure coaxial within said nozzle for rotation by the intercepted wind,
- (d) an endless cable drive in the form of at least one elongated loop of cable extending from the craft to the ground,
- (e) electrical energy generation means comprising a generator on the said ground,
- (f) sheave means drivingly coupling each turbine wheel to the endless cable drive, and
- (g) other sheave means on the ground drivingly coupling the endless cable drive to the said energy generation means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.