Are Box Kites the best design choice for your kite flying?

Box kites have a long history. Though many people still fly these kites for recreation, they were originally designed for lifting. These kites are fun to fly and will provide many hours of fun watching sail into the air. Kites have been flown for a long time and brought pleasure to many people including some of the most noted scientists such as Benjamin Franklin and many others. The innovations of the box kite has steadily made progress through out the years with new designs and shapes and even the way that we fly them. There are people who fly multiple kites at one time and those that fly them for competition. Here we will take a look at one such design concept for the kite, the Box kite.

The box kite was invented in 1892 by an Australian named Lawrence Hargrave. With his design and by linking several of these kites together, he was even able to lift a person into the air. This was later duplicated with improvements to the original plans and became tools for the military. The military personnel could be lifted high above the battle field for a better view of what was happening.

The design of the box kite has for struts that are parallel. The design of the box itself is rigid with diamond crossed struts. The design also calls for two ribbons that are used for the sails. These tails are a quarter of the overall length of the box kite. These ribbons are wrapped around the ends of the box. This leaves the ends and the middle of the kite open. The bridle is tied to halfway between the top and bottom of the bottom strut. There are larger models of the box kite that are used as cellular kites.

The majority of the altitude records that have been set by kites have been done with the use of the box kite. These kites were flown with Dacron as the material for the sails and spectra cable for the bridle. In the times before the materials Dacron, spectra and Kevlar were introduced, these kites were constructed of oiled silk, hemp or linen for the sails and steel cable was used for the bridle.

This was just a brief history into the life and invention of this type of kite. Today they are not just used to lift things or for the use of the military, they are great kites to be flown for our pleasure and are great to observe the way that they fly in the air.

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