Kitekraft Flying Wind Turbine Demonstrator Complete System Flight Test

Integration Test with new ground station demonstrator: Kite takes off from and lands on ground station with a short figure eight flight in between. 00:00 Intro 00:18 Undock 00:49 Unroll Tether 01:29 Rotate towards Launch Position 01:39 Continue to Unroll Tether 04:08 Rotate Landing Perch away from Tether 04:28 Transition into Figure Eight Flight 04:49 Transition back to Hover 05:09 Hover Down to Reel-In Altitude 05:55 Catch Tether with Landing Perch 06:44 Reel in Tether 08:16 Dock onto Landing Perch 09:57 Power Off Rotors Kite size: 2.4m wingspan (1:4 scale of 100kW product). Location: Otterfing near Munich, Germany Date & time: 07 October 2022, around 2 pm. Name of kite: SN8 "Stiffy" (due to upgraded, stiffer tail) Additional explanation for this test flight: * Full integration test flight with new ground station demonstrator. * Kite now takes off from and lands on the ground station, not touching the ground anymore, similar to the later product. * At first, the kite rests on the ground station. It is hooked to a top landing bar and fixated to the ground station via the tether. * Rotor start, kite starts to lift, and the hooks unhook. * Now, the tether can be unrolled from the winch. During this phase, the landing perch dynamically follows the tether to be able to locate the kite and guide the tether vertically. * Once the full tether is unrolled, the landing perch rotates backwards to free up the tether for the upcoming flight. * The kite starts to transition into figure eight flight (power production mode; during this flight wind was too low to actually produce power). * Only short figure eight flight, as test was intended to show functionality of ground station. * Kite transitions back into hover. * Landing Perch rotates to the front, catching the tether. * Tether is rolled back up onto the winch, again, guided by the sensors on the actively controlled perch. * Tether Hook come in contact with docking beam. * Rotors power off, hooks engage. * Kite ready to fly again. For more information and technology explanations, visit https://www.kitekraft.de/ Music credits: Infraction - No Copyright Music: https://artlist.io/artist/231/sean-williams This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe program under Grant Agreement No. 101084216