The cat is about to leap
by Trevor Mason 26 Aug 2004 09:35 BST
AIRBUS TEAM BUILDS FORMULA 1 CATAMARAN TO ENTER USA SAILING CHALLENGE
A catamaran, which uses a solid wing instead of a fabric sail, has been designed and built by a team of aerospace engineers at Filton near Bristol in a bid to win the ‘Little America’s Cup’.
Members of the team, known as “Invictus”, have used their aircraft wing designing skills, and materials and facilities mainly provided by Airbus, to build the catamaran. The ‘Little America’s Cup’; a catamaran sailing race similar to the Americas Cup but using faster and lighter boats will take place in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA in September.
Boats used in the Little America’s Cup have solid wing sails instead of the usual cloth. Invictus are working on the 25 ft long (7.6m) hulls and the 40ft high (12.1m) wing sail to race against similar boats from America and Australia. The wing, using a ‘split flap’ system and a novel way of twisting for control, will be so efficient that speeds more than twice that of the wind powering it will be attainable. Using a mixture of traditional and modern materials it will be of a similar weight to the two crew who will sail it. This class of catamaran is the Formula 1 of the sailing world.
Invictus is led by Airbus engineers Norman Wijker and Mark Bishop. Norman, who lives in Kingsweston in Bristol has been a keen sailor since childhood. He said: “As aircraft designers we are approaching this challenge from a very different angle. We work on designing high performance, aerodynamic wings for commercial aircraft every day and we think this gives us the technical edge to rival any team in the world.
“The support of Airbus and the use of its facilities has given the team huge advantages, unrivalled in the world of sailing.”
Mark Bishop, from Henleaze, Bristol said: “It is a very exciting project. Using a wing sail rather than a traditional cloth sail is a good opportunity to use aerospace technology, materials and facilities such as the wind tunnel at Filton to produce a world class product”.
Iain Gray, Managing Director for Airbus in the UK said: “We are all following progress with interest and will be rooting for them while they are in America.”
Those interested in following the team’s progress can log on to their Internet site at www.team-invictus.co.uk