Airborne Wind Turbine Flight Demonstrations

The Makani Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) is a tethered wing that generates power by flying in large circles where the wind is stronger and more consistent. It eliminates 90% of the material used in conventional wind turbines, and can access winds at higher altitudes and above deep waters offshore — resources that are currently untapped.

Over the course of 2011, Makani Power built and tested its 30kW AWT prototype, known as Wing 7. This video is a compilation of several flight tests conducted over the last year.

In this video the AWT can be seen launching from a perch, reeling out in hover mode, autonomously transitioning from hover into crosswind flight, flying crosswind to generate power and transitioning out of crosswind back into hover before it finally comes to rest on a perch again.