A single prop for a wind turbine has been caught in the wild by Dogmantra, a friend of the Boing Boing Gadgets blog.
We’ve covered wind power several times before, but this close-up provides context to describe the startling size of these things. Mock-ups or distant pictures of wind farms are one thing, but seeing a single gargantuan tine almost taking out highway signs is another thing entirely. These wind turbines are truly humbling in scale.Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
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If you drive on the interstate with any frequency in the midwest, these sightings are pretty commonplace on the I80/I35 corridors. Still pretty cool to see up close though. I think the one pictured is quite a bit larger than your average turbine blade though.
Plus - notice how light it is. Only two axes on a trailer are enough.
from Gardner, KS
You can see these nearly any give Sunday @ I-35 and US-75. Nearly every Sunday while traveling on I-35 I see trucks hauling these parked along side the highway at the truck stop that is at that junction.
Wait till they start making the blades out of carbon nanotubes.
Aren't they already carbon fiber? I live new Kansas City and see train fulls of them quite often.
I live in Bloomington, IL and they built a wind farm a few miles east of town a couple years ago. They would drive right down Business 55 through the main part of town and then head east out ow town with the blades. At first I thought they were airplane wings they were so big. After see a few go through, I realized they were windmill props. They're absolutely massive and when you see them on the windmill you don't realize how big they really are.
Whoever took that photo needs to fixed his cracked windshield.