Press ▲ / ▼ to fly the kite higher or lower and watch the power change!
What it does. This simulator flies a tethered energy kite, modeled on Google's real Makani M600 project, up and down through the wind column, showing how altitude and wind speed change power output in real time as it hunts for the sweet spot.
Why it exists. Built for my own kids, and now something the science teacher at my school uses too, as a wind-power example most students have never seen: an airborne turbine on a tether instead of a tower. It's a genuinely different way to teach the same wind energy concepts as the turbine simulator.
The big idea. Wind gets faster and steadier higher up, which is exactly why a kite-based turbine can reach air a tower never could, but there's a real ceiling: fly too high and thinning air and tether drag start cutting into power instead of adding to it.