The high-altitude wind turbine that looks like the futuristic descendant of the Wright Brothers’ iconic biplane is being scaled up on the US West Coast, with its inventor seeking to send a 1MW model skyward by 2014.
Joby Energy, based in Santa Cruz, California, is currently road-testing a 10kW prototype of its airborne device, a winch-tethered kite-plane concept that is kitted out with eight vertical-axis rotors like those on a helicopter.
The
