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Kite Types
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Do not be fooled by the fighter kite of Malaya or India. It is not as simple as it appears. Actually, it is a sophisticated combination of lines, stresses, and subtle variations.
Really good fighter kites are made by professionals who build into them clever refinements that are not obvious. Some of these subtle differences have come down through time as family secrets.The true fighter kite is superficially a flat kite, but it flies
without a tail, which would be an impediment. The fighter kite depends on its own exquisite balance and the skill of its flier to keep it in the air and under control. |
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Box Kites |
The box kite is to kiting what the biplane was, and is, to powered aviation. It is strong, it has doubled wing surface, and its conformation creates a lot of drag. From the start, the box kite was a workhorse. Invented by an Australian, Lawrence Hargrave, about 1892, it was put to work almost at once by U.S. government meteorologists. They sent it far up carrying all sorts of recording instrument. Sometimes, in order to loft especially heavy loads, box kites were flown in tandem, in teams, or even, as the French say, en train. Men, big cameras, huge flags, fireworks - all sorts of items were sent up just for the novelty of it. |
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The Classic Two- sticker |
The two-sticker is the most conventional, the most "kite shaped" kite. Like all flat kites, it requires a tail, and also like most such kites, it flies at a fairly low angle, with maximum drag and minimum lift. |
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More Flat Kites |
Flat kites are popular because they are easy to make and lend themselves so readily to wild decoration. Moreover, with their necessary tails, they are charming to watch as they sashay across the sky. They can be almost any reasonably symmetrical shape. |
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The Basic Bowed Kite |
Converting a flat kite into a bowed kite introduces an aerodynamic factor called dihedral or dihedral angle - the angle formed at the meeting of two supporting planes. In a kite, the dihedral is the angle, at the keel, between the outspread wings. It is usually a very flat "V." Birds have a dihedral angle. So do airplanes. And in one form or another, many fine kites have a dihedral, too. |
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Tetrahedrals And Triangles |
The box or cellular concept in kite design has been played with by countless enthusiasts, but most of them have agreed that the principle of diminishing returns applied as elaboration increased. With complexity piled on complexity, he kite became relatively heavier, and the frontal area built up monumental drag. Flying ability dropped. |
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Oriental Kites |
Kites produced in Malaysia, in the various countries of India, in China, and in Japan all have their distinctive differences. On the whole, they tend to be differences of flying attitudes rather than basic format. An Indian sportsman buys his kites from professional kite makers and flies them competitively to knife his rivals from the air. Chinese and Japanese kites are flown, generally, either for the fun of it or in accord with some established ceremonial.
The common denominators of Oriental kites are bamboo and paper, for both are readily available and make excellent kites. Because bamboo is beautifully bendable and paper (usually rice paper) so easily decorated, it is entirely in character for Oriental kites to be made in all sorts of complex shapes and painted in wild designs and color combinations. A perfectly plain, undecorated Oriental kite is unthinkable.
Oriental kites are mostly flat kites. It follows that they need tails. Indeed, the long, luxurious, sweeping tails are frequently as decorative as the kites themselves. |
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Dragon Kites |
At the other end of the kite spectrum from fighter kites are the ponderous dragon kites. But dragon kites are certainly spectacular and well worth trying, especially as a club project, in camps, or similar groups. In some languages, kite literally means dragon, so the Chinese call this creation the centipede kite. |
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