After the plane he was flying came apart in midair and he fell 500 feet to his death on Aug.7, 1913, Samuel Franklin Cody was accorded a hero’s funeral at Aldershot, England. A procession viewed by fifty thousand people delivered his body to the military cemetery there and Cody was interred with Great Britain’s heroes, the first civilian and the only American cowboy ever to be accorded such an honor.

Logan Airport in Billings, Montana, is the scene of a wonderful exhibition of kites, on view through March of next year. As proof that the East, in this case Japan’s Kumamota state, and the West, represented by host Montana, do after all meet despite the Kipling injunction, and exhibition titled Sky, Wind and World has been mounted in the air facility. Two million passengers are expected to view it. Kumamota and Montana are sister states and this exhibit is the latest manifestation of their friendly partnership.

William Abner Eddy of Bayonne, New Jersey is credited with creating the popular diamond-shaped, tail-less kite that is recognized around the world.

"When the city of Jodhpur joined hands to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Umaid Bhawan Palace in 1993, there were festivities throughout the year," he notes. "One was a kite festival, conceived by myself. The festival was very successful and it got known in the kite world."

Japan has its kite extravaganzas such as Hammamatsu. France presents an unrivaled panoply of the sport at beautiful seaside Dieppe in Normandy. But for sure brio the Makar Sankranti fetival throughout India, and in Jaipur in particular, on January 14 each year is hard to top. On this day, as the sun ascends for the first time into the northern hemisphere, millions of Indians mark a time of rebirth by taking to the rooftop terraces in their cities and towns to fly fighter kites equipped with ground glass cutting lines. The object is to slice another kite-any kite-out of the …

Should a tail be long and narrow, or short and fat? Should it be attached directly to the kite itself, or at at some distance away from the kite? Does it make any difference anyhow? To get some answers, I made up four conventional 36-inch diamond-shaped flat kites exactly alike and in the same ripstop material. Then I made four tails 4 inches by 15 feet long, also of ripstop. The surface area of the tail was determined by trial and error to allow the kites to stay in the air at least a 15 mile an hour wind.

Because of Indonesia’s current problems, the decision to hold the festival in the beautiful town of Sanur, Bali could not be made until two weeks before the starting date. At such short notice, less than a dozen international participants were able to join in the mid-year event. Guests came from Brunei, Singapore, Japan, France, Austria, Holland, and the U.S. Bali itself was more than well represented.

In continuous operation since 1885, the Blue Hill Observatory near Boston had a rebirth this spring as a weather museum and science center. After a $1.3 million renovation, it reopened to the public with private educational foundation status. Blue Hill almost from its inception had been associated with Harvard University but that connection was severed some years ago in a cost-cutting move by the university.

THE COMPETITION: The Chulas and Pakpaos engage in an annual battle of the sexes at Sanam Luang, the Royal Parade Grounds next to and directly north of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. Kiteflying from March 15 to April 15 is the time when winds-"kite winds"-blow from the south. The due north orientation of the venue and the way the winds blow over the palace provide excellent flying conditions.

The collection of Thai royal kites Ron Spaulding of Bangkok put together for The Drachen Foundation is notable because it is the first time the Foundation has gone out and actively sought to obtain a comprehensive collection of kites from a given tradition, complete with all the accessories used to fly them, the tools to craft them, as well as samples of native materials used in their manufacture.