"Gilligan" wrote in message
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"Scout" wrote in message
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"Gilligan" wrote in message
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http://www.siege-engine.com/seuss/taunters.jpg

so you're saying a flying, diseased cow sparked the revolution if sail
design?
Scout


No thanks, we've already got one.

Actually the Chinese Junk sails are the first use of a airfoil shape for
sailing. The sails are battened. They can also sail into the wind.
Aircraft wings are rigid, the are not loose fitting. Parachutes and
paragliders are like that. Kites are rigid airfoils. The Chinese invented
kites and human size gliders over 2500 years ago. I would say that
theChinese airfoil designs may have influenced their sailboats.

Another innovation using a foil is the fin keel and the articulated rudder
of Antonius Flettner. These innovations happened about the time of modern
flight.

The notion that a diseased, rotted, flying cow ushered in any type of
sailing innovation is udder nonsense.


I hear the Chinese like gliding off their big wall. It was considered good
luck to yell "I fart in your general direction!" before jumping.

I guess once people got the idea of fluid movement around restrictions
creating usable pressure differentials, it became just a matter of
experimenting with different shapes and fluids.
Scout