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Product: Flagpole
Fluttering Flagpole   (+19, -5)  [vote for, against]
A flagpole with a built-in breeze.

A flag fluttering stiffly in the breeze is an inspiring sight, and does a country proud. A flag drooping down, listlessly, is not going to impress anybody. An air-curtain fan built into the flagpole could exhaust a stream of air along the flag to keep it streaming outward at all times, proudly.

This could easily be built into a vertical flagpole's upper section. The air would exit out of a rectangular nozzle that surrounds the attachment end of the flag. (There are air-knife and air-curtain nozzles much like this already.) The airflow would attach itself to the flag, streaming it outward.

The upper section and nozzle would be able to pivot with the wind, with the flag itself acting as the vanes to keep it oriented. The fan could be built into the upper section as a series of squirrel-cage fans with intakes above and below, or the top section could be supplied with air from a blower on the ground.

The fluttering flagpole wouldn't appear to be much different from a regular flagpole, but it would remove that awkward droopiness that we all find so embarrassing.
-- baconbrain, Apr 13 2005

Miniaturized version Mini_20Fan_20Flag_20Pole
[Shz, Apr 13 2005]

Hong Kong handover http://www.bbc.co.u...ays/flagdown1.shtml
Indoors, in a convention hall. This is 1997. Repeated in 1999 for Macau. Also "Chinese flag"-pictures on CNN. [bitmiffed, Jul 10 2005]

Perhaps run some of the air through a seam in the flag.
-- DrCurry, Apr 13 2005


What about a bouncey flag pole, thin and resillient enough but with it's own wind catching system so that it is always bouncing back and forth keeping the flag flapping back and forth
-- JesusHChrist, Apr 13 2005


Really of course, flagpoles should be giant metronomes producing a resounding tick, tick tick noise and waving back and forth all day.
-- hippo, Apr 13 2005


This would be fun at ballparks, where the flags could all jump up and wave vigorously whenever a player hits a home run.
-- phundug, Apr 13 2005


Not a Kat idea but this is nice. I like fluttering stuff.
-- The Kat, Apr 13 2005


Hey Kat, I had this great idea, had something to do with a feather, some string, and a stick. Whaddya think?
-- daseva, Apr 13 2005


A really powerful flag blower would look neat if it managed to blow the flag in a pre-determined direction, regardless of the wind direction.

"In our camp, the flags go to the left!"

I just noticed that a small typo would change the complete meaning (if flag became fag).
-- Ling, Jun 03 2005


An excellent, well-written idea (especially the 1st paragraph!) +
-- phundug, Jun 03 2005


Excellent, useful for real moon landings, combined, of course, with some bottled air. Something the give the conspiracy theorists something to think about! [+]
I like the last paragraph too.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jun 03 2005


Actually a muuch better idea than those metal flags they put in a suspended motion look. I was looking for a link, and I found this weird site selling car-mountable nazi flags.
-- Chickenbreadthe1st, Jul 01 2005


//would remove that awkward droopiness that we all find so embarrassing//

Anyone want to put money on Pfizer being the first to install one of these flagpoles?
-- Freefall, Jul 01 2005


Nice idea and, as far as I can tell, redundant with the linked "Mini Fan Flag Pole" idea, scale being the only real difference.
-- bristolz, Jul 01 2005


Thanks for the link. Um, yeah, it is redundant, mostly. I swear I researched this idea and never saw that. How deflating.

Well, I came up with this idea myself, and it is about a big pole, for outdoor erection, so I'll keep it up.

Thanks for the croissants.
-- baconbrain, Jul 02 2005


hasn't the Halfbakery of late, become a boneyard of phallicies and limp jokes like this? :P
-- dentworth, Jul 10 2005



random, halfbakery