Brief background

In the early 90's designs of the floating kingdom had one or more tall vertical wings, that were designed like an aircraft wing stood on end and could be set at any angle, but acted like an efficient sail, being used as one the major means of moving the kingdom about. By the late 90's this had been reduced to one or two, used to help hold the kingdom in place, at the same time under water versions of the same designs were envisaged to allow the current in the ocean as well as wind to be used. 

As the design of the kingdom has been shown to be more practical and the size of structures have increased, the practicality of having any great effect from a very tall wing has reduced.

Currently

We have generally dropped the idea of a very large single wing as the size would now need to be beyond what is easily achievable, however there is still some discussion about the concept of a pair of office blocks that are in the shape of a huge vertical wing and can be rotated, by effectively rotating a floating round island that sits in the ocean in a hole within a larger island. Having two with the shapes mirroring each other would also allow steering. The same concept with downward wings that have a neutral buoyancy has also been considered.

The idea we are considering at the moment, is the option instead of having two large wings to have very many small ones, that would be servo controlled using computers and sit on top of the sea wall around the front and on both sides, again in mirrored pairs. This has a number of advantages, firstly the structures do not have to be so large, secondly that we do not have to provide a way of holding them upright, as the sea wall will be able to support this, and the ability to trim individual wings would allow the wind in storms to be used to help hold the shape of the kingdom, taking some of the pressure off the cross guys that will keep it in shape.

Horizontal sea wings

Beyond twice the  depth of waves the sea water is fairly stationary,  therefore a wing in the water running through at this depth would create considerable stability while water was moving past and if no water was flowing over would act like a large plunger, damping out the wave effects.

Large deep sea wings have been suggested under and between the two airport units, well below twice the deepest waves and the depth of the deepest draft of ships. 

Similarly many designs of sea wall units, and in particular the front units, have had sea wings added to act as stabilizers.

It has been suggested that using pneumatic technology in combination with sea wings could be a way of constructing very large low cost islands, that are very strong and stable.

How does a wing work

A wing works by having a different distance for the air to flow around one side than the other, this causes the air above to become thinner and produces a suction effect, creating lift.

Although we think of wings on aircraft, wings are also in use in many ways. F1 cars have upside down wings to hold them firmly on the ground and a hydrofoil, is a boat with wings under the water that can use the wings to lift the craft completely or largely out of the water, reducing friction and getting more speed.

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Last updated: October 09, 2002.