Cellular Kites

There are many different types of cellular kite with varying characteristics. They range from simple box kites to highly elaborate aerial structures, and even the simplest have an special appeal resulting from their 3-D nature which simpler kites lack.

Born in Greenwich, England, Hargrave emigrated to New South Wales at the age of 16. His many experiments were aimed towards the goal of powered flight but he refused to patent any of his findings, preferring rather to allow anyone to build on them who could.

Improved lift can be had for a slight loss of stability by flattening it a little, resulting in the rhomboid kite. A traditional box can normally be transformed into a rhomboid simply by exchanging the equal length internal cross-spars which hold it open by two pairs of unequal length. It is instructive to demonstrate how the flying angle increases and the stability deteriorates as the kite becomes flatter.

Plans for a rhomboid kite are given by Eden. Here's a rhomboid variant flying at Dieppe in 2006.

Outline plans for a pely box are available, or you may like to consult Eden. Here is a picture of two pely boxes flying together, at Fanø 95.

Moulton & Lloyd give plans for a slightly modified conyne. They claim that shortening the front cell a little gives even greater stability. Plans for a standard conyne are also available online. Here is a picture of one by Geert DD.

George Lawrence used a train of Conyne kites to lift cameras for aerial photography. His most famous photograph, taken in this way, was a panoramic view of San Francisco after the devastating earthquake and fire of 1906. The negative was a massive 18 by 48 inches and it was published around the world, earning him $15,000. See it for yourself!

When Cody arrived in England he invented much of his American background, with the result that many of the stories about him are fictional, not least his birth in Texas - a state he presumably thought would have more street-cred than Iowa - and his real name was not Samuel Cody, but Franklin Cowdery!

With a train of his kites, Cody succeeded in lifting observers in a wicker basket, but when he approached the British military authorities they failed to take him seriously, on account of his flamboyance. Nevertheless, they were so impressed by his shooting skills that they offered him a post as a shooting instructor, which he declined. Only after crossing the English Channel in a 13ft boat drawn by one of his kites did they express interest. In subsequent experiments during 1904-5, Sapper Moreton was lifted to the incredible height of 2600ft!

The military associations of this kite have lead to it often being referred to as the Cody War kite. There exists on the net a highly informative page of photos and plans of an original cody kite recently sold at Sotheby's.

The Waldof Box was only the first of a series of spectacular creations, including the Waldof Conic, and Superstar, as shown in the sketch. (Rest your mouse on it and look at the status line at the bottom of your browser to identify the variants.) The Conic has the advantage over the Box that if there are any small inaccuracies in the sizes of the panels, tension can redistribute itself throughout the structure instead of causing some panels to go slack. Here's a photo of one from kitestore.com. I think it's also more elegant, but the Superstar has been described as the most refined of the three.

Here are the plans for the one I built, and a picture of it in flight.

As well as linking several Waldof Boxes together into a huge assemblage like a space station, other creations were the Waldof Star - a 3-dimensional 8-pointed structure, and the Magic Box - a small winged box, easily assembled for flight by springing it open like an umbrella.

If the tumbling star fascinates you but you couldn't contemplate building one, consider the dancing cube. This is like just one box of a traditional box kite. Without the second cell and the gap between them, it's unstable, but because of that, great fun to fly! Carolyn Weir has compiled some simple plans using ripstop nylon. Alternatively, commercial versions are available quite cheaply, not only cubes, but triangular prisms and cylinders, known as the Triad and the Pop-can.

Circoflexes are often built from mylar film (familiar as shiny foil gift-wrap) in sizes of several metres in diameter. Mylar tends to crease, but this only adds to the spectacular effect as the light glints on it. With a thin, barely visible bridle and flying line, this unidentified flying object always causes a stir among onlookers as it hangs almost motionless in the air, wobbling like a jelly in any slight gusts. If you don't have a sewing machine but want to build something that'll turn heads wherever you take it, this is definitely the kite for you, especially if you're handy with the sticky tape! The original plans are in French, but Anthony Thyssen has an English version for 7.5 and 10m circumference models He also has a collection of pointers to a considerable number of photos of circoflexes. Here is just one of them - a silver circoflex flying over a rocky outcrop in Leicestershire. Few kites look more like something from outer space!

The circoflex is sometimes confused with the bol, but the two are actually quite different. In particular, the circoflex has a bridle with unequal length legs to hold it at an angle to the wind and so generate lift. It also has an almost constant diameter from the leading edge to the trailing edge.

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