Airplanes deploy revers thrusters when landing which are basically just shaped metal shields that move into place behind the engines to provide reverse thrust and slow the plane.
But adding a fan on a sailboat is seen as stupid and doesn’t work.
Airplanes deploy revers thrusters when landing which are basically just shaped metal shields that move into place behind the engines to provide reverse thrust and slow the plane.
But adding a fan on a sailboat is seen as stupid and doesn’t work.
A sail absorbs the wind’s energy, transferring it to the boat (which is the same place the fan borrowed it from). There’s no net airflow backward, as there is with reverse thrusters.
If you replaced the thrust reverser on the aircraft with a cloth sail, much the same thing would happen.