Kites and Kite Making

As a child I had many kites, all single line ones that I used to tie to a long bar my dad put up in the garden before i went to school. Sometimes I would have 10 kites in the air at one time. I could see them all flying in the air from my classroom, sometimes the kites would stay up all day, sometimes they wouldn't. Since my teens I had lost my interest in kits until recently. I bought a 2 string delta from a local kite shop and that has rekindled my interest in kites. Only this time around I intend to make the kites rather than buy them. I know NOTHING of kite history, I don't know much about kite aerodynamics either but I do know how they fly and that should be enough for a clever spot like me!

I will be making 4 kites. The list below contains links to each on on this page in the order i intend to build them. If the info is not there then I have not yet made that kite! As i modify each kite I will keep notes and pics for your perusal here.

Kite Making Info
Sode (Single Line)
Fighter (Single Line Controllable)
Box (Single Line)
Delta (Single Line)

Kite Making Info

There is a very basic list of stuff you will need to build a (basic) kite, in fact a simple diamond kite can be built with one piece of A4 paper and a straw. I intend to use newspaper and plastic bags for sail material until such times that I am happy the designs will fly well and are strong Whence i shall purchase some ripstop nylon. Struts, braces and supports will be made from 1.4mm TIG welding wire. The whole kit and kaboodle will be held together with packing tape. You will also need a stright edge, a tape measure (or a 1 meter rule), scisors, a very sharp blade, a large eyed needle. You might find some super glue handy too.

The process is simple.

Mark out the sail on one side of a bit of folded material (Kites are symmetrical mark and cut one side to get balance!).
Apply packing tape onto all marked lines (for strength).
Cut out the shape.
Tape on the struts and spars (Nose protection!).
Attach a bridle.
Attach to a flying line.
Go fly your kite!

Nose Protection

The nose of a kite can take a severe battering when the wind drops and they fall out of the sky. I protect mine by glueing 4 matches together then taping this to the very tip of the kite. Then i roll the matches to the tape and also the nose of the kite. All my kites have a flat nose because of this trick. A picture says a thousand words!!!

Sode (V1.1)

The sode is a supposedly flat kite. That is to say the spars do not bow in any way. Alas my first attempt at a Sode was flat and just spun round and round no matter how much I altered the bridle. This attempt used square wooden dowels joined together with dove tails, took me bloody hours to make :( So much for a flat kite!

Whilst contructing the second version I decided to allow the wind to add a bow to the kite by using the afore mentioned TIG wire. This worked much better. This second attempt actually flew really well, for about 10 minutes at a time after which it would plummet to the ground. This is how I discovered the nose/ match trick. I picked a bit of bark off a spruce tree and taped it to the front end of the center spar. This solved the 10 minute problem. Basically the nose of the kite was working its way down the center spar messing up the shape of the top half of the sail.

I intend to make a larger version of this kite using more professional materials. Ripstop, carbon rods and such. This version is about 900mm tall and 600mm wide. I think by using ripstop and carbon i could make it four times that and it would still fly. I suppose you could make it as big as you wanted really but Im gonna go for double the size and make it such that the spars can be removed for easy storage. Non collapable kites of 1m plus soon fill your home!

Fighter (V1.0)

My first attempt at a fighter was a disaster. The only thing I could get it to do was spin, it didnt even generate any lift as far as I could tell! Back to the drawing board.