From towing kite propulsion to sails fitted with solar panels, modern engineers have been working hard to find ways to make our increasing reliance on big cargo shipping more energy efficient and ...

On 19 November 1924, a ship slowly manoeuvred through the Port of Kiel. On board were Ludwig Prandtl and Albert Betz from the Aerodynamic Research Institute (AVA) in Göttingen – a predecessor of today ...

The twin Flettner rotor ship Buckau made its maiden voyage into Grangemouth in 1925 It must have been a bizarre sight when a freight ship, equipped with two large rotating towers, made its way under ...

Idlers along the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass., last week beheld a scene out of the sepia supplements of the Sunday papers. A beamy, 35-foot Navy cutter was moving steadily by, showing neither ...

The Flettner Airplane made its debut in the 1930s. Instead of wings, it flies using rotating cylinders that stick out from either side of its body. We’ll tell you about its inventor, and show you how ...

Finnish marine engineering company Norsepower Oy Ltd. announced that it will bring to the commercial maritime market an auxiliary wind propulsion solution aimed at maximizing cargo ship fuel ...

Anton Flettner’s Rotor Ship (TiME, Nov. 17)—or Sailless Ship, as it is more commonly called—has set the scientific world agog. Early reports were entirely misleading. There is no question of capturing ...