The animated photo sequence shows a failed launch attempt of the TU Delft V3 kite from an upside-down hanging position on 2 August 2012 at the former airfield Valkenburg, Leiden, Netherlands. As for all previous mast-based launch attempts, the hanging kite is first steered into a pendulum motion, before taking off with a sideways upswing maneuver to the right. This upswing motion ends at the side of the wind window with a roughly horizontal tether and the kite subsequently falling back. A possible contribution is the sudden drop of the propulsive aerodynamic force, which is indicated by the observable loose membrane and partial collapse of the entire right half of the wing. While falling back, the kite again catches wind and regains power, and this time is steered into a sideways upswing maneuver to the left. The following events are not covered only fragmentarily by the photos: the kite is unable to assume a stable flight above the mast head and several times dives into downswing maneuvers, crashing into the line suspension system of the launch mast, where it eventually comes to a rest.
This launch was also covered by data recording, and by two different GoPro video cameras, of
which one was positioned on the ground, next to the launch mast, and the other one taped to the leading edge tube of the kite, looking down at the kite control unit. The photos capturing the unsuccessful launch attempt were shot with a Nikon D40X in irregular intervals.
The photos were assembled into a video using the precise time information available for each photo from its metadata. Because the time duration between some photos is very long, the generated movie is of limited use for these periods. Also, the absolute time setting of the
camera was incorrect. The time information from the data redording was used to determine the
starting time of the video sequence as 20:32:01. |