Kites are tethered flying objects which fly by using aerodynamic lift, requiring wind (or towing) for generation of airflow over the lifting surfaces.
Various types of kites exist, depending on features such as material, shape, use, or operating skills. Kites may fly in air, water, or other fluids such as gas and other liquid gaining lift through deflection of the supporting medium. Variations in design of tethering systems and lifting surfaces are regularly introduced, with lifting surfaces varying in stiffness from limp sheet material to fully solid material.
Manufacture Kites may be built by the flier or by a dedicated kite manufacturer, which may be a member of the Kite Trade Association International (KTAI), which also includes kite retailers.Kite Trade Association International (KTAI). Retrieved 11 March 2011.
Materials Kites have been made from the following materials:
Plastic – for example, a Styrofoam-only kiteStyrofoam kites. Organic materials – such as plant leaves and grassInterview with Anna Rubin. She made a kite wing of just grass. Paper Textiles such as rip-stop nylon, nylon, or Dacron
Wing character Monoplane Flexible sail Stiffened flexible sail Rigid wing Biplane Multiplane Low-aspect-ratio – wings that have a narrow chord (length from front edge to rear edge), compared with their span High-aspect-ratio – wings that have a wide chord, compared with their span Ram-air inflated Closed bladder, gas-inflated Rotating wing – also known as rotor kite or gyroglider (e.g. Focke Achgelis Fa 330)
Multiple unit kites A multiple unit kite may be made of a single wing, several wings, or several sub-kite units arranged as trains, chains, coterie, single-branching, multiple-branching, arch-kite, "ladder" mill dynamic kite-chain, or combinations of these patterns. World records for the number of kites in a kite train are in the literature; teams of people are used to fly kites of high-count sub-kite units.'No Secrets' Trains. Team Spectrum Kite Display, 2007. Bird train, Mylar fighter-kite train, and more.Kitesailing International, December, 1988. Retrieved 11 March 2011.Dave Culp SpeedSailing. Retrieved 10 March 2011.Nathan's, Believe It Or Not, Kite Boat. Retrieved 10 March 2011. Parafoil stacks have been built with over 200 kite units. Multiple pilots Large kite systems may require more than one pilot. In a team like the "Flying Squad" of nine kite pilots each person might fly his own sub-kite while, as a team, its kites form a unified display.The Flying Squad. Retrieved 10 March 2011. One pilot may simultaneously fly several kites; the pilot with several kites forms one kite system of two, three or more kites in the system.Team Spectrum Kites. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
Buoyancy
Kites are normally heavier than their supporting medium, such as a kite flown in air. Some kites have their lift augmented by lighter than air gases, allowing the kite to remain airborne without wind or being towed.
Hydro dynamic kites can have positive, neutral or negative buoyancy, relying on hydrodynamic lift to manoeuvre, rise, or dive.Hooper et al. "Lidar Measurements of Wind in the Planetary Boundary Layer: The Method, Accuracy and Results from Joint Measurements with Radiosonde and Kytoon," Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology, vol. 25, pp 990–1001 (Jul. 1986).NASA Q&A. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
Control Kites can be controlled by various methods which usually involve manipulation of the tether/control lines, lifting gas density control and in some cases by aero-dynamic control surfaces.Guy H. Kennedy, Jr. patent for thermodynamic kite. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
Stability Kites can have positive, neutral or negative stability, in all axes of control, in the same fashion as aircraft. Kites with positive stability tend to return to a stable state automatically, whereas those with neutral or negative stability require control inputs to return the kite to the required position or attitude.Pitch & Lockout Limiter. Retrieved 11 March 2011.NASA: Kite Balance and Stability. Retrieved 11 March 2011.Rotating kites. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
Legality
Kite flying has been enjoyed for thousands of years in South Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The goal is to cut off the rival kite (usually flown by someone on a neighbouring rooftop). In order to cut the "enemy's" kite line, a very strong fishing line, prepared with glue and powdered glass covers some length of the kite line or wire. The kites themselves are usually of a standard size and shape (square shape) and mostly made from paper and split bamboo. After a kite is cut down, it has to be recovered by the cutting party. The last flying kite wins the game. The government of Pakistan has repeatedly outlawed this sport. It claimed that some people had been decapitated by driving with their scooters or motorbikes across abandoned glass powder & glue prepared kite wire. Others have fallen off roofs while engaging in kite flying. Other reasons that were given was that the mass sport and its associated festivals of Basant are considered "unislamic" and connected to Hinduism. Kite flying was also banned in Afghanistan during the reign of the Taliban. However, large sections of society simply ignore the ban. Since there was outrage over the ban, the government of Punjab has lifted the ban, however a ban on powdered glass wire has been imposed, as well as the thickness of the wire itself.
Glossary of kite types
Windbow
A Advertising kites These kites hold advertisements, logos of organizations, slogans for causes. Orders of mass-produced kites imprinted with an advertisement form a significant part of kite commerce. Aerial photography platform kites"WindMueller Aerology Lab". Retrieved 12 March 2011. Airplane kites"Kite patent". Google Patents. Retrieved 12 March 2011."Kite patent". Google Patents. Retrieved 12 March 2011."Kite patent". Google Patents. Retrieved 12 March 2011."Airplane kite" . Chinatownkite.com. Retrieved 12 March 2011."Airplane kite photo" . Runawaynow.com. Retrieved 12 March 2011. Large kite planes are finding an application in renewable energy generation. Arc Kitedesigned by Peter Lynn"PeterLynn ARC set-up FAQ" . Kite-fantastic.co.uk. Retrieved 12 March 2011. Arch kite/multiple-kite arch in this design, one or more lines holds many kites in an arch: a rotary two-anchor rainbow arch and/or a static two-anchor rainbow arch. If the kites making up the arch kite rotate using the Magnus effect the term also applied is rainbow kite or just bow kite or kite bow or "sky bow" or SkyBow; one form of the rotating arch or rainbow kite is the ribbon kite (in one or multiple segments). Swivels in the line are important. Distinguish between a long arching collection of kites in a bow, or a rainbow pattern from a power kite called a bow kite.Rotating kites; skybow.
Aqua-gliderThese various-formed manned kites were kited behind tow boats over water. Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Skliar in 1959 designed a biplane kite glider nicknamed Bayou Bird.Sailplane Directory. Biplane manned kite towed over water in 1959. Retrieved 12 March 2011. In 1961, Tom H. Purcell designed and flew an aluminum-framed Fleep-like Rogallo hang glider kite over land; in 1962, he kited the same wing (but pontooned) while over water. His effort was imaged and noted in Skysurfer Magazine in its May/June issue of 1973, published by EAA inductee Michael Markowski, author of Hang Glider's Bible. The 1962 Mike Burns SkiPlane and 1963 Dickenson wings closely matched the Purcell, Barry Hill Palmer, and the Charles Richard NASA Paresev 1B wing; minor control sticks derived from the triangle control frame were used in each of these kites (which sometimes glided). These kites, towed high, could stop their kiting and release into a glide. See section "B" for boats that have a major operating sector as a kite (for example, a 1930 Peel Glider Boat).
Archimedes screw kite These kinetic rotary kites mimic the Archimedean screw. Arch kites a single kite with an arch form,Improvement in Folding Kites patent. Retrieved 12 March 2011.Improvement in Kites patent. Retrieved 12 March 2011.Concave parabolic arch kite Peter J. Pearce et al. Retrieved 12 March 2011.Monocoque arched kite Peter J. Pearce Retrieved 12 March 2100. multiple arches,Louis Kite. Retrieved 12 March 2011. or an arch topPegtop kite. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
Art kites Video kites, kites on photographs, fine-art illustrations containing kite images, paintings, sculptures, flight-simulator images of kites, engineering drawings, sewing plans, drawings of kite plans, story illustrations in children's books, patent drawings.Kites in Art Retrieved 12 March 2011. A Genevieve Lytton graphic card illustrated a fancy-dress-ball costume involving a hexagon kite with tail and string reel.Genevieve Lytton as "The Kite" Retrieved 12 March 2011.
Asymmetrical kites Good kite design and construction practice includes the aim of having the left and right sides of the kite's wing be mirror images of each other, for balance. A collection of builders are exploring asymmetrical designs, which involve special challenges.Profound Issues Posed by Asymmetry Autogyro kites (gyro kite, heli-kite, helicopter kite) use unpowered autorotation
B
Bag kites Made from single or multiple bags. Some use paper bags, others plastic. Bags simply as a source of material is a trivial use; other bag kites retain much of the form of the bag.Bag kites Retrieved 12 March 2011. Balloon kites Applies to both lighter- and heavier-than-air kite types. The lighter-than-air balloon kite is the kytoon, which is aloft whether or not the wind blows. When the kytoon is not kiting, it floats aloft as a pure balloon; when it is kiting, it is a true kite. Kytoons are used to loft radio antennas, rescue signals, and kite-line laundry.Kite Balloon by Domina C. Jalbert, filed 1944 Retrieved 12 March 2011. Balloon kite with "ballooning" spiderlings Not a mechanical balloon, but a collection of spider-silk threads used for dispersal of spiders. Richard Miller, in his 1967 book Without Visible Means of Support, described the mechanics of the double-kite system where the upper kite lifts and drags, coupled with the lower kite that lifts downwards and drags; the common kiteline results in a kiting system in free flight. In the chapter, "Flying Kites", he writes that in the nineteenth century Hiram Stevens Maxim observed the kiting of spiders; biologists continue to use the misleading term, "ballooning". Bug-hunter Darrell Ubick correctly recognized that ballooning spiders actually are kiting, as noted by Pamela S. Turner in "Super-Powered Spiders". In Tales with Tails: Storytelling the Wonders of the Natural World, Kevin Strauss demonstrates in three places (pages 184, and 185 and 187) his understanding of the "kiting" of the "ballooning" spider (since no true balloon is ever made). Three staffers of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board in Are Cobwebs Made By Spiders? recognized the kiting of ballooning spiders. A pest-control company has studied spiders and asserts it is kiting that is done by instars (spiderlings), even though the historical term is ballooning. The Rare Species Conservatory affirms that ballooning spiders actually do not balloon, but kite.Rare Species Conservatory. Wildly Weird Facts. They carefully distinguish that the spiderlings actually kite even though the term "ballooning" is sometimes used. Barish sailwing"David Barish, the Forgotten Father of Paragliding" Retrieved 12 March 2011.BARISH GLIDE WING David T. Barish, US Patent 3480238 Filing date: 27 Feb 1967. Issue date: Nov 1969. Retrieved 12 March 2011. Barn Door Kites Barn door kites are very similar to an eddy kite except that barndoor have two vertical diagonal spars in contrast to the diamond's single vertical spar. Beginner kites Kites of this type are separated by sellers, makers, and leaders.G-kites Catalog