Richard Jenkins (engineer)
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Richard Jenkins is a year old engineer from
Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...
, UK. He is known for engineering and sailing wind-driven vessels on land, ice, and water. In 1999, he founded the Windjet Projec

while studying mechanical engineering at
Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. Since then he has designed, built, and tested four separate speed record craft. Jenkins is currently the founder and CEO of Saildrone, a company that designs, manufacturers, and manages unmanned surface vehicles that sail the world's oceans collecting science data. In 2019, SD 1020 became the first unmanned vehicle to complete a circumnavigation of Antarctica, crossing every longitude line in the Southern Ocean.


Early years

Jenkins was born in England to Australian parents. He was raised in Lymington, a small village near Southampton and on his grandfather's farm in Western Australia. He became interested in sailing and engineering at a young age: he was
dinghy sailing Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using five essential controls: * the sails * the foils (i.e. the daggerboard or centreboard and rudder and sometimes lifting foils as found on the Moth) * the trim (forward/rear angle ...
at age 10, working on the last airworthy
Short Sunderland The Short S.25 Sunderland is a British flying boat patrol bomber, developed and constructed by Short Brothers for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The aircraft took its service name from the town (latterly, city) and port of Sunderland in North East ...
flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
at age 12, building an International Moth dinghy in his early teens, and doing design work for super maxi yachts while attending college. He first crossed the Atlantic when he was 16. He also helped to sail
the Matthew ''Matthew'' was a caravel sailed by John Cabot in 1497 from Bristol to Newfoundland, North America. There are two modern replicas – one in Bristol, England (built 1994–1996) and one in Bonavista, Newfoundland (built 1997–1998). Cabot's ...
, a replica of
John Cabot John Cabot ( it, Giovanni Caboto ; 1450 – 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest-known European exploration of coastal North ...
’s 13th century
galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...
in which the explorer discovered the island of
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
.


World land speed record

On 26 March 2009, Jenkins broke the world land-speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. He reached 126.1 mph (202.9 km/h) in his land yacht ''Greenbird'' on
Ivanpah Lake Ivanpah Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California on the border of California and Nevada. Nestled in the Ivanpah Valley near Primm on Interstate 15, the lake is almost entirely within California. At the no ...
, a dry lake in California's
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...
. The previous record of was set by Americans Bob Dill (engineer/designer) and Bob Schumacher (pilot/builder) on 20 March 1999, driving their wind-powered vehicle the Iron Duck in the same location. "Top speed is actually quite scary. The structure and tyre grip is all at the limit, so keeping it in a straight line under full control takes full concentration," Jenkins told ''The Guardian.'' ''Greenbird'' is the fifth iteration of the land yacht that was first known as ''Windjet''. ''Greenbird'' is powered by a carbon composite wing that produces thrust similarly to how an airplane wing produces lift. Jenkins attempted to break the world record for sailing on ice on the frozen Canyon Ferry Reservoir in Montana with a vehicle adapted for ice.


Saildrone

The innovation that allowed ''Greenbird'' to break the land speed record was a unique wing/tail/tab system that produced aerodynamic wing control. A tail mounted midway up the wing allowed for very precise control of the "angle of attack" of the wing to produce maximum power while consuming very little energy. Jenkins adapted that system to an autonomous surface vehicle known as a saildrone and founded a company by the same name. Saildrones are wind powered for propulsion and use solar to power onboard sensors and computers used to gather ocean data In 2013, Saildrone 1 (SD 1) became the first
unmanned surface vehicle Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), also known as unmanned surface vessels, autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) in some cases, uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), or colloquially drone ships, or robot boats, are boats or ships that operate on the ...
to cross an ocean using only wind power. The saildrone was deployed from San Francisco on October 1 and sailed 2100 nautical miles arriving in Kaneohe, Hawaii, 34 days later.


2019 Antarctic circumnavigation

The First Saildrone Antarctic Circumnavigation mission, funded by the
Li Ka-shing Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 13 June 1928) is a Hong Kong billionaire business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. As of June 2019, Li is the 31st richest person in the world, with an estimated net wealth of US$33.4 billion. He is the senior ad ...
Foundation, was launched from Point Bluff, New Zealand, on January 19, 2019. The 196-day mission covered 13,670 miles (22,000 km) in the Southern Ocean and returned to the same port on August 3, 2019. During the mission, SD 1020 had to survive freezing temperatures, 50-foot waves, 80 mph winds, and even collisions with giant icebergs. SD 1020 had a special "square" wing designed especially for the Southern Ocean. “While the square rig has less performance range than the regular saildrone wing and struggles to sail upwind, it does a great job of sailing downwind and can still get you where you need to go in the Southern Ocean. You inevitably sacrifice maneuverability for survivability, but we have created something that gets the job done and that the Southern Ocean just can’t destroy!" said Jenkins in a company blog post. The voyage is a "a technological feat that was unfathomable just a decade ago."


Surveyor

Having established Saildrone vehicles as the most capable and proven USVs available, Jenkins expanded the technology to address new market needs including lifecycle solutions for offshore wind farms and ocean mapping. The 72-foot (22 m) Saildrone Surveyor, launched in January 2021, is the only autonomous platform capable of performing IHO-compliant bathymetry surveys to depths of 23,000 feet (7,000 m).


2021 Atlantic Hurricane Mission

In September 2021, in another world first, Richard successfully sent a Saildrone into the eye of a Category 4
hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
in the Atlantic Ocean. Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 captured HD video and images from the eye of the storm while collecting data about air-sea interactions that is expected to transform our understanding of hurricane forecasting. “Saildrone is going where no research vessel has ever ventured, sailing right into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data that will transform our understanding of these powerful storms. After conquering the Arctic and Southern Ocean, hurricanes were the last frontier for Saildrone survivability. We are proud to have engineered a vehicle capable of operating in the most extreme weather conditions on earth," Jenkins said in a NOAA press release.


2022 Albert A. Michelson Award

In April 2022, Jenkins was recognized with the annual
Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson Royal Society of London, FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the ...
Award, presented by the
Navy League of the United States The Navy League of the United States, commonly referred to as the Navy League, is a national association with nearly 50,000 members who advocate for a strong, credible United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Coast Guard and ...
. The award honors "a civilian scientist, technical innovator or technical organization for scientific or technical achievement." Jenkins was selected for the award in part for Saildrone's 2021 Atlantic hurricane mission; the award citation stated that the measurements and video collected "could transform our understanding of hurricane forecasting."


References


External links


Saildrone website

"Ecotricity Greenbird smashes the world record"
''YouTube''. Greenbird Project. Mar 28, 2009
"Iron Duck"
''YouTube''. Iron Duck Project featuring Richard Jenkins and Greenbird. Nov 3, 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Richard Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Mechanical_engineers British_inventors World_record_holders