Kites

A kite is a flying tethered man-made object. The necessary lift that makes the kite fly is generated when airflow over and under the kite creates low pressure above the kite and high pressure below it. more...

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In addition to the lift, this deflection generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind. This drag is opposed with the tension of one or more lines held by the operator of the kite. Kites held with more than one line can be steered by pulling the different lines with different strength.

History

The kites of history can be traced back thousands of years to when kites first originated in China. The initial usage of kites was purely military: they were a communication tool. Different messages were communicated mainly via different colored kites during the day. At night, the message communicated was very limited in comparison to those during the day because the lanterns carried by the kite could not produce different lights. In extremely rare occasions, giant kites carrying aerial observers were also deployed in reconnaissance roles. Gradually, kites became a popular form of recreation as well as art. With the advent of gunpowder, kites were occasionally flown for bombing missions after the Yuan Dynasty, delivering explosives to targets that were out of reach of cannons and arrows, such as those on the opposite slope of a mountain.

Today, in addition to kites that are mainly flown for recreation, art or practical use, there are power kites or traction kites. These are steerable kites designed to generate substantial excess lift and a pull that can be applied in related activities such as kite surfing, kite landboarding or kite buggying.

Materials

Kites typically consist of one or more spars (sticks or twigs) to which a paper or fabric sail is attached, although some, such as foil kites, have no spars at all. Classic kites use bamboo, rattan, or some other strong but flexible wood for the spars, paper or light fabrics such as silk for the sails, and are flown on string or twine. Modern kites use synthetic materials, such as ripstop nylon or more exotic fabrics for the sails, fiberglass or carbon fiber for the spars and dacron or dyneema for the kite lines.

Kites can be designed with many different shapes, forms, and sizes. They can take the form of flat geometric designs, box kites and other three-dimensional forms, or modern sparless inflatable designs. Kites flown by children are often simple geometric forms (for example, the diamond). In Asia, children fly dried symmetrical leaves on sewing thread and sled-style kites made from sheets of folded writing paper.

Chinese kite designs often emulate flying insects, birds, and other beasts, both real and mythical. The finest Chinese kites are made from split bamboo (usually golden bamboo), covered with silk, and hand painted. On larger kites, clever hinges and latches allow the kite to be disassembled and compactly folded for storage or transport. Cheaper mass-produced kites are often made from printed polyester rather than silk.

Read more at Wikipedia.org