Shipping by Kite

Maybe the future is early 20th century technology with retrofits for 18th Century technology. Like this test of a giant kite to pull a shipping frieghter along. They reckon they got a 10% gain in fuel efficiency. Not to be sneezed at really. And it looks wicked. Steam punk, man. Yeah.

"Deployed from a retractable mast on the ship's deck, the kite is controlled by a central console that operates like a plane's autopilot system, monitoring and recording over 100 measurements in fractions of seconds to keep the kite in its optimum position.

Once up, the kite flies at between 100 and 500 meters above sea level where the winds are around 50 percent stronger. In these conditions it's designed to take on the optimum aerofoil shape that ensures that the kite can maximize thrust whatever the conditions."