Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: February 28, 2002
Article Type: Journal

Of the fewer than a dozen basic, or generic, kites extant in the world today—the number is a source of contention—the Sled is one of the most popular. It is easy to make and a good flier.

It is credited to William A. Allison, of Dayton, Ohio, an aeronautics prodigy, who at the age of l3 received the run of the shops at Wright-Patterson Field from admiring workers there. Allison made model aircraft famed for their craftsmanship, according to writer and kite expert Tal Streeter, who has done extensive research on the inventor. Allison is credited with having invented the radical Sled in about l950 and he received a patent on it in l956. It was the first semi-rigid kite ever patented. But it wasn’t until the Scott family of the same city marketed a kite known as the Scott Sled, with a vent added to the design for better stability, that the design became globally famous.

This origin of the Sled is now challenged by a discovery made by Istvan Bodoczky, of Budapest. Bodoczky is both an artist and a kitemaker, renowned for his assymetrical kites. While doing kite research, Bodoczky came upon an article titled Games and Toys of Children in the Capital in the January-February 1904 issue of the Hungarian Ethnographic Journal. In the article, a “Buda Jewish kite,” complete with drawing, was discussed by one Zsemley Oszkar. “This is without question a Sled kite,” says Bodoczky, and the drawing in the journal (here illustrated in an accurate copy) seems to bear him out. The design was obviously already old by l904, when the essay was published.

PDF Link: Journal Issue