Yes it is. Back in 2022 I wrote two articles on solar and wind-powered EVs. The former I said held promise, but the latter did not. However, the use of the wind to power land vehicles directly—as opposed to powering an EV–has a long history. I came across an 1878 issue of Scientific American that featured a wind-powered rail car and some more fanciful wind powered vehicles.[1]
Iceboats, and land yachts, the latter sailed on beaches and playas (dried lake beds), have been around for decades. (If I remember correctly, Bay City, Michigan’s Gougeon Brothers built racing iceboats before they ventured into building wind turbine blades in the 1980s.) These vehicles use a traditional sail to propel a three-wheeled vehicle (or one with skies) typically across the wind.
Subsequently, a whole new class of vehicles has been developed using wind-driven rotors that mechanically power the vehicles instead of using sails. There’s an annual Racing Aeolus event held in Den Helder, the Netherlands. Teams from across Europe build vehicles to compete. These vehicles can sail directly into the wind. You can find entertaining videos of the competitions on YouTube.
What prompted this digression into wind-powered vehicles was the Tritan A2. Someone sent me a link to an article in Car and Driver History’s Wildest Pizza-Delivery Vehicle Is up for Auction.[2] The gist was that Robert Lewis was trying to sell the vehicle which was used to deliver Dominos’ Pizza. The three-wheeled Tritan A2 included a wing-shaped tail on the aerodynamically-sleek vehicle.
The Tritan A2 was a gasoline-powered derivative of James Amick’s Windmobile that he invented in 1969. Amick’s vehicle used a large curved wing on the tail of the vehicle to drive it—without a motor. On 9 April 1974 the Windmobile reached a then land speed record of 50.9 mph on Roach Dry Lake, Nevada piloted by Nord Embroden.[3]
Subsequently, Amick built a solar-powered version that competed in the 1987 World Solar Challenge across Australia. This may be the most famous version of Amick’s designs.
Then there are high-tech vehicles using movable wings rather than sails. On page 186 of my 2016 book Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, I wrote
“In spring 2009, the Greenbird smashed the land sailing speed record at an incredible 126 mph (56 m/s) on Ivanpah dry lake in California’s Mojave Desert. These speed records may not appear to have any relevance to the prosaic matter of moving goods. Yet it was from the early days of auto racing that many of the technologies were developed that made automobiles the practical conveyance they are today. Such achievements under sail, hardly imaginable just a decade ago, illustrate that there’s” still room for technological improvement.
So yes, wind-powered vehicles are a thing.
- Wikipedia: Wind-powered vehicle
- Wikipedia: Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)
- Wikipedia: Greenbird
- Greenbird derivative: Iron Duck
- Racing Aeolus in Den Helder, the Netherlands
- Day 2-3 – Racing Aeolus 2019 with introduction in French, race clips begin at 0:40.
- Solar-Augmented EVs? Is this a Thing?
- Wind Turbines on EVs and Why That’s a Bad Idea, But Solar Yes That’s a Winner
[1] “A Sailing Railway Car,” Scientific American X XXV III. No. 16 (April 20, 1878), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-sailing-railway-car/.
[2] Brendan McAleer, “History’s Wildest Pizza-Delivery Vehicle Is up for Auction on Bring a Trailer: The Tritan A2 Was Envisioned as a Bold and Visionary Way to Whisk Hot, Bubbling Dominos Pizza Pies to Hungry Customers.,” Car and Driver, December 8, 2023, https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a46076573/domino-s-pizza-triton-delivery-vehicle-bring-a-trailer-auction/.
[3] Ron Amick, “James L. Amick — The Windmobile in Photos,” accessed May 15, 2024, https://windmobile.net/.
