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-wi...