Orlando T.D. Ongkingco of Manila is “Mr. Kites” in the Philippines. Organizer and leader of the Kite Association of the Philippines, “Orly,” age 45, energetically promotes the sport, has written a book about kites, spreads the word internationally by attending kite festivals.

The Khmer Rouge holocaust of the late l970s not only wiped out an estimated third of Cambodia’s population, but because it was aimed at the intelligencia—anyone wearing glasses, for example—— it obliterated much of the country’s culture. All but a handful of the royal dance company, which had performed worldwide, perished.

In the summer of my tenth birthday, my father sawed thin, narrow sticks out of a pine board for me. I scissored a diamond shape out of a sturdy brown grocery bag and used rice paste made over the oven burner to glue it to the sticks. It was my first kite, the first kite I made, and it possessed a kind of magic as I felt it lift out of my finger’s grasp, run upward higher and higher, then come to rest flying smoothly in the clouds high above.

Just about the time we think we’ve seen and done everything in kites, along comes a humbling nugget like this. Here are some kite designs that would make any of us proud. Are they practical? Can you travel with them, can you store them, can you even wedge one into your car? Probably not. But are they innovative? Do they use materials in clever ways, are they evocative of nature, do they scream originality?

INTRODUCTION Here are some kites that are quick and easy to build and fly, made from readily available, inexpensive materials. No sticks are used. They are stiffened by creases in the paper. These kites are good for classrooms, homeschoolers, scouts, senior crafts, church groups, or parties. I picked these three to show you from 42 kites that I made for this project. MATERIALS AND TOOLS

With a festival that has run for over thirty years, one that emphasizes the worldwide cultural importance of kites, it is appropriate that Dieppe, France is front-and-center as a kite festival that must be seen. But this year, at Dieppe, a more powerful legacy of kites was found six blocks from the flying site. It was the wonderful collection of Robert Devautour kites in an exhibition organized by Thierry Nénot. Here were two generations of Dieppe kite builders, fliers, and researchers, bound to each other and to the rich history of French kite making.

Burning Man is annual arts festival and alternative community gathering held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. Drachen board president Scott Skinner calls the event “a great audience for kites.” Read about Scott and Jose’s trip, photo-documented here, on the Drachen blog: https://www.drachen.org/kite_wanderings_older.html

Let’s do a quick overview of the subject of high altitude wind energy. In a nutshell, the industry is attempting to extract energy from the wind at higher altitudes than a wind turbine. Ground based wind turbines are limited to around 300 feet. As you increase altitude, the wind speed also increases. The “pie in the sky” goal would be the jet stream (30,000+ feet) since the sustained wind speed can easily exceed 100 MPH, occasionally reaching speeds in excess of 200 MPH.

In July 2010, Drachen Foundation and Deep Blue Conservancy supported Oscar Frey and his team to achieve new goals and results in the ongoing development of Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) applications to survey the archeological and natural resources of the Yucatán Peninsula. Since 2006, we have done KAP surveys and workshops in the Yucatán Peninsula. We have achieved liaisons with different scientists and research institutions that are now providing new opportunities for the application of KAP in Mexico.

On June 17th, I traveled from my home town of Seattle to Holbox Island, Mexico. For the next week, I was able to watch and work with marine biologist Oscar Frey and his team as they used Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) to capture the extensive wildlife which inhabits the island. Oscar is working to document the erosion which is destroying habitats on the island, as well as to perfect the methodology of KAP for research.