December 4, 2006 8:23 AM PST
The towing kite, seen here above the Beaufort, is controlled by an automatic routing system that makes use of data from the historic routes of big freight-carrying sailing ships. Ships will initially need to carry an engineer to operate the sail, according to SkySails. Full-scale production of the kites is expected to begin in 2008.
The SkySails system doesn't come cheap. Its price tag runs between 500,000 and 2.5 million euros ($660,000 to $3.3 million), according to Reuters.
Photo by SkySails
