Not to be outdone by the USAF powering their bomber fleet using coal, the Navy is reaching back to an even older, yet greener technology to deliver military equipment overseas: The wind.
For the first time, the US Navy is using a new breed of sailing ship to deliver military equipment, a move that can potentially reduce fuel costs by 20 to 30 percent, or roughly $1,600 a day per ship, according to the ship’s owners.
The Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) has chartered the “kite-assisted”, fuel-saving 400 foot, MV Beluga to deliver Air Force and Army cargo to from Europe to the US.
The MV Beluga uses a paraglider-shaped, SkySails-System, which supplements its conventional, internal combustion engines. The sail is basically a huge, computer-controlled kite that soars 100 to 300 yards into the air, using the wind to tow the ship at the end of a long tear-proof, synthetic rope.
You want to learn something new, read an old book.
Your comments were very interesting but no one seems to have noticed that kite-assisted ships are already operational over many thousand sea miles. Also, a girl sailed a really small boat–kite powered (no motor) across the Atlantic last year.