you can get some amazing kites on aliexpress these days, the (innovative to me) reel winder took the last annoyance of kite flying out of the equation and the kids love them. I seems like the rigging from flying wings is the big innovation that could have been solved(discovered?) years ago but was not...
We used to fight kites when I was a kid. Bamboo frame, shield kites, really maneuverable. We’d line the first 20m of string with a mix of glue and ground glass.
If a kite was cut loose, whoever caught it could keep it, so naturally everyone ran after a free floating kite.
If you were really good you could entangle the freed kite in your kite tail or string and reel it in.
i barely see kites on my neighbor nowadays but when i was a teen, we had a group that never fought with each other and our signature against other kites nearby was (translated directly) to shout "fall out thrash!" when we cut/captured them. some got pretty mad at us. we had various techniques like bringing their kite closer to the ground and then someone throwing a line with a stone at the end over their line, so we could capture it etc. if i'm not mistaken we even slingshot some kites as a way of disabling. my record was to stay up after 8 won battles. that day i felt heroic hahaha
9 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 27.6 ms ] threadIf a kite was cut loose, whoever caught it could keep it, so naturally everyone ran after a free floating kite.
If you were really good you could entangle the freed kite in your kite tail or string and reel it in.
Actually, a large kite (I know fighters are not large) can be dangerous without glass on the string.
Covers history, and building kites using all sorts of easily available materials.