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Comment by wolverine876 | Hacker News Reader

> solid wings are dramatically better in lift drag ratio

Why has anyone used fabric sails? If they could build a wooden boat, they could have made wooden sails. Too heavy, and thus modern strength/weight materials were needed?

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Weight and the fact that wings are a modern invention that requires an understanding of aerodynamics

In addition to what others are saying, look at the sails of giant ships of the past. They're just big rectangles that block the wind, they don't work anything like a wing.

Look up fore-and-aft sails and lateen sails, which seem winglike (but I'm not sure of the actual aerodynamics).

My thought exactly. Some university should build a wing sail ship using exclusively materials and tools available during the Golden age of sail.

That's a tall ask but I think something is possible. The best approach imo would be a "soft wingsail" made from two fabric sails that sandwich a central mast with ability to pivot widely if not freespin. There's some companies today chasing this as a middle ground. It's not as efficient as a solid wing, but sailors are understandably conservative and like something fabric they can take down in high winds vs let weathervane, even if the physics of the latter work out.

How would that differ from a lateen sail?

It would have battens to create an airfoil. Lateen vs burmuda is beside the point.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: https://www.omerwingsail.com/

> Lateen vs burmuda is beside the point.

I was thinking of fore-and-aft (which I should have said instead of lateen specifically) compared with square, but my knowledge is pretty limited.

Yes, people 200 years ago did not possess the material science knowledge to build a solid wing that would not be insanely heavy, vs... canvas.

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