Turbosail

In 1980, Jacques Cousteau dreamed of creating a ship with a modern engine that would be powered, at least in part, by the wind, a clean, free, renewable energy source.

Cousteau and his associates, Professor Lucien Malavard and Dr. Bertrand Charrier, used a fixed cylinder that looked like a smokestack and functioned like an aeroplane wing.

It consists of an airfoil, vertical and grossly ovoidal tube, with a mobile flap which improves the separation between the intrados and extrados.

An aspiration system pulls air into the tubes, and is used to increase the depression on one side of the sail; a reaction force occurs as the result of the pressure difference.

A movable, flap-like trailing-edge shutter and a fan-drawn aspiration system are used for control and increase the magnitude of the maximum reaction force.

However, the use of fan-drawn aspiration, which requires engine power, increases the generated reaction force compared to the unpowered device.

Having proved the concept, the prototype development was ultimately abandoned in 1982 as Cousteau's group turned their attention to a larger vessel, the Alcyone.