oh, boy...long one. sunny lin sure makes this part look one heck of a lot easier than it is! the india kite is to me the worlds most successful design, and has been evolved, modified and proven just about longer than anything else. newspaper kites are what we had 50 or 100 years ago, as children builders. here, the two are combined for a first basic kite for children, that starts the path to the india, hata, and other historic kites. the idea is to do this without anything too sharp, more so than a pencil. the paper used here is original newspring, soon a thing of the past, it also works well with more modern 22 x 22 newsprint. picture 1 is what you will need, two sheets of newsprint, two 36 x 3/16 inch dowels, tape, pencil, string. picture two shows the paper folded to form a triangle. picture 3 shows the remainder of the paper folded over the triangle. photo 4, tear off the edge you just folded. photo 5, fold the triangle again, half way, and crease. photo 6, tape all along any edge, and the edge next to it. photo 7, tape and attach cross spar at one of the taped leading edges, then carefully do the same on the opposite side. this is the most difficult part, dont let the bow slip. 8, slide spine under cross spar. photo 9, 10 tape tail in place. photo 11, 12, make a clean break of excess spine at nose, then tape as tail, photo 13, tape at both halfway folds you made earlier. photo 14, tape between half way point crease and tip, both sides. photo 15, slip an x of tape under cross spar and spine, one strip at a time. photo 16, tape down the spine a quarter the length of the spine up from the tail. photo 17, puncture the sail through the tape you just applied, both sides of the spine, and above and below the cross spar and spine. photo 18, loop line around cross spar and spine and tie tightly. do the same at the tape attaching the spine to the sail. photo 18, hang kite from bridle and set bridle to 5 to 10 degrees. photo 19, set bridle knot. photo 20, 21, 22, time for the second newspaper, place it out and roll it up long ways. photo 23, 24, fold it up evenly and tear into strips along folds. photo 25, unroll strips and tape into one long piece. you may want to tape much of the entire length, starting at the end or ends to attach to the tail. photo 26, tape to tail, one, both, or many ends as desired. photo 27, 28, 29, 30, go fly this light wind kite. shown at about 800 feet out. photo 31, kite launching cup glider shown before.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 01:47:56 +0000