a) they can put a laser ring gyro or MEMS 6-DOF sensor on the AC72 for AOA and a host of other variables (likely existed from day 1) b) multiple sensor technologies exist that give you height above water. c) all of it is pretty darn cheap, save a laser ring gyro which is unnecessary (not navigating from point A to point B 3000 miles away)
I've been thinking about this all week, it's really the only solution I can see making a notable speed gain in the short time frame they had to modify the boat. I'm not sure it's class legal, and I'm not sure I believe the report that it's true.
It would also have to have very quick action to the daggerboards/rudders to be able to adjust them so quickly, they'd have had to completely re-design their inputs to the hydrolic control systems. Not saying they didn't but man, that's a lot of R+D work in not much time!
The 777 has stability augmentation through the fly by wire control inputs, that you never even notice when you are hand flying it. When you hit turbulence or change your configuration (flaps/gear) it puts in opposite controls to dampen out the bumps/changes, so quickly (supposedly many times per second?) you never feel a thing.
I suppose Oracle could have put a similar system on board their boat, to control their foil tilt, that would be a game changer for sure, and probably against some rule, so no wonder they won't tell anyone what exactly they changed to get that thing going faster upwind!
