latest science news

Wind speed

An engineer in Hampshire has broken the world land speed record for a vehicle powered by wind – by 10mph.

The engineer, Richard Jenkins, drove the Ecotricity Greenbird car at 126.1mph across a dry lake bed in Nevada, USA, on 27 March, 2009.
 
Now the fastest naturally-powered person on Earth, Jenkins describes his vehicle as part aeroplane, part sailboat and part Formula 1 car. A vertical sail sits upon its light shell roof and thrusts forward from the airflow that travels across it.
 
Dale Vince, of the firm Ecotricity, told The Sun: “It shows what is achievable with great British engineering and the power of the wind. In the next 20 years wind-powered cars will no longer be the stuff of dreams.”
 

Blow by blow

Meet a Role Model who is involved in wind tunnel trials.