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Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)

propeller-driven land yacht

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ880697 ↗
Source-derived summary

Blackbird is an experimental wind-powered vehicle, built in 2010 to demonstrate that it is possible for such a vehicle to go directly downwind faster than the wind (sometimes abbreviated as DDWFTTW). Blackbird employs a rotor connected to the wheels and does not have a motor, battery, or flywheel. It was constructed by Rick Cavallaro and John Borton of Sportvision, sponsored by Google and Joby Energy in association with the San Jose State University aeronautics department.

In a test supervised and recognized by the North American Land Sailing Association in July 2010, Cavallaro achieved a speed of 27.7 mph (44.6 km/h) sailing directly downwind in 10 mph (16 km/h) winds: almost three times the speed of the wind. In 2012, Blackbird also demonstrated sailing directly upwind with twice the speed of the wind.

Theory

Rotor-powered vehicles are wind-powered vehicles that use rotors—instead of sails—which may have a shroud around them (ducted fan) or constitute an unducted propeller, and which may adjust orientation to face the apparent wind. The rotor may be connected via a drive train to wheels or to a generator that provides electrical power to electric motors that drive the wheels.

A vehicle with a bladed rotor mechanically connected to the wheels can be designed to go at a speed faster than that of the wind, both directly into the wind and directly downwind. Upwind, the rotor works as a wind turbine driving the wheels. Downwind, it works as a propeller, driven by the wheels.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)” as propeller-driven land yacht. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Blackbird, wind-powered and vehicle.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 2012—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Blackbird, wind-powered and vehicle providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)”, the useful work is to connect “propeller-driven land yacht” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q880697. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 2012.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Blackbird (wind-powered vehicle)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.