Saturday, November 17, 2007

The Flying Fish

Volitan is a new lightweight and futuristic concept boat for everyday peeps like you and I. Using solid sails, wind power and solar energy, the Volitan will also be the greenest on the seas. Her name comes from a word that means “flying fish” which she sorta looks like when her sails are down.

The Volitan’s systems are controlled and optimized by a networked computer. Whilst sailing, wind and solar energy are harnessed and stored in the boat’s batteries, enough to stay operational thru day and night.

Dynamic stability is key to wing design and is affected by various weather conditions. To compensate the boat’s wings track the sun and wind for optimal power. In extreme weather conditions, they fold up against the boat but have no fear because the Volitan is engineered to operate in up to 60 knot winds.

The floating wings (moving panels with DC motors) on the sides of the boat were designed to fore and support the moving solar wings performance and overall stability. The motors on both sides of the boat are placed in such so navigation performance is maximized. The vessel can easily turn on a dime thanks to the two smaller stabilizer wings and when docking the sails retract and tuck away neatly.

Check out the video.


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National Geographic

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