Re:Vikings already did it (Score 2, Interesting)

And Sir John Thornycroft built models to prove it in the 1870s. And every 5-10 years somebody re-invents it and it doesn't work at large scale then either so it just joins an ever longer list of improvement patents like these 1412848 Apr., 1922 Dunajeff 114 / 289. 2005473 Jun., 1935 Sanden 440 / 44. 3261420 Jul., 1966 Schmidt 180 / 122. 3590762 Jul., 1971 Yuan 114 / 275. 3827388 Aug., 1974 Fulton 440 / 44. 3871317 Mar., 1975 Szpytman 114 / 282. 3968762 Jul., 1976 Meyer, Jr. 114 / 278. 4166515 Sep., 1979 Tattersall 180 / 119. 4345538 Aug., 1982 Warner et al. 114 / 274. 4660492 Apr., 1987 Schlichthorst et al. 114 / 67. 5339761 Aug., 1994 Huang 114 / 274. 5626669 May., 1997 Burg 114 / 67. 5860383 Jan., 1999 Whitener 114 / 271.