Facts About Anton Flettner And Collapsible Flettner Rotor

By Author: ISSAC Gates
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Anton Flettner was a German aviation engineer and inventor born on November 1 1885 in Eddersheim, presently a district of Hattersheim am Main. He was a very innovative person and had made significant contributions in designing of airplanes and helicopter. In the year 1920, he used a schooner and to it he joined two rotating 50-foot cylinders. In this way he became the first person to build a propulsion system based on the Magnus effect. Anton Flettner came up with this brilliant idea when he was in a beach with his wife. In order to describe the Magnus effect and to realize its potential on sail propulsion, he used sand, flowing over his rotating hand. Using this technique he built a ship called Baden-Baden which was successful in crossing Atlantic in the year 1926. But unfortunately, it was destroyed by a storm in the year 1931. Later, a commercial ship named Barbara was also built which sailed to the United States.

Anton Flettner was also known for the invention of Flettner Rotary Ventilator. This invention of his was used on busses, boats, vans, campervans and trucks to assist cooling without using energy. He ...
... also invented helicopter and built them for German Millitary. He built the Flettner 184 was a German night reconnaissance and anti-submarine autogyro which was developed during the 1930s. He also built Flettner Fl 185 which was an experimental German Helicopter in the year 1936. He also built Flettner Fl 265 helicopter and Flettner Fl 282 Kolibiri helicopter.

Technologies like Collapsible Flettner Rotor have been developed to facilitate loading and discharging operations, passing under bridges and to refrain during bad weather conditions or straight headwinds. Actually, the size of the previous standard Flettner rotor and their non-collapsibility feature caused problems and were not accepted at ports because there was a risk of damage and therefore, the port authorities did not accepted the vessels. However, this limitation of standard Flettner rotor has been overcome by the application of Collapsible Flettner Rotor. Besides this, the problem of passing under bridges due to the height of the rotors is also solved by the use of collapsible Flettner rotor.

The collapsible flettner rotor system is actually controlled automatically by software and closely monitored from the bridge. There is no need for additional crew. The system has been tested in the fields of both tank tests as well as full-scale sea trials. It can be included in new- build designs and it can also be retrofitted in the existing vessels. Retrofitting of Collapsible Flettner Rotor requires about 14 days and can be done at most of the ports across the globe. The maintenance of this rotor is easy and for all the installations there are annual service contracts. The collapsible flettner rotor is although a small device, but it is very powerful when it comes to moving a fast sailing boat. In fact, it can even move big ships easily.

Therefore, Anton Flettner was a great inventor and Collapsible Flettner Rotor is very useful as it can even move big ships without any difficulty.