For many European kite enthusiasts, the Roloplan is a kite they consider just as important as the Hargrave, the Eddy, or the Cody. It is interesting for collectors because many original examples of it still exist and have been traded time and again. Small wonder: the Roloplan was manufactured from 1909 to 1943 and again from 1950 to 1968 in altogether twenty different sizes!

Wind power. It’s everywhere. In nature, it plays a part in ocean waves and mountain storms. Man’s use of it includes sailboats, windmills , and of course, drying clothes. Man has been using the wind for millennia, and with today’s technologies, significant breakthroughs may be possible to help answer part of the world’s energy problems.

Freeing America (and the world) from its dependency on fossil fuel has become an urgent need. This is acknowledged at virtually every level of governmental, scientific, geo-political, sociological, and cultural research and study. Therefore, this white paper will not dwell on establishing the importance of this issue. Rather, it will address one scheme for emancipating ourselves from fossil fuel dependence, which, while high-risk, is also high-reward.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) strives to stimulate certain types of research through sponsoring grants via what NIST calls the Technology Innovation Program (TIP). The TIP generally is aimed at sponsoring research that is not being funded through any other source, in particular, research that while presenting a high risk, has a potential for high rewards if outcomes are successful. Recently, NIST/TIP has been focusing on research related to solving socioeconomic problems that have significant impact on the US national welfare.

Aeromodelers are familiar with towed gliders. The model glider is towed to some height and released from the towline to glide down. Rather than run with the towline, the glider could be launched into a wind and flown at the end of the line as a kite, without releasing it from the line.

THE EARLY DAYS Since the invention of the box kite by Lawrence Hargrave and the bowed kite by William Eddy, there has been only one man who created a major innovat ion i n unmotor ized flight . Of cour se ever y enthusiastic aviation specialist and kite-fanatic knows more people who were inventive: Otto Lilliënthal, Alexander Graham Bell, and Samuel F. Cody. From the perspective of innovation, though, the invention of Francis M. Rogallo was a real breakthrough.

September 1989, West Berlin. This is two months before the wall was torn down. A thought that was inconceivable to most East Germans in their lifetime. But the wall coming down is another story. We are lucky enough to have small pieces from both sides of the wall: a smudgy, shitty, yellow piece of wall from the East and a wonderfully colored piece of the wall from the West.

Alistair McKee came around to see me just before Christmas. Alistair works for the BBC and had been put onto me as a source of information on George Pocock, who, in the ear ly 1800s , pract iced the ar t of aeropleustics in and around Bristol. We had a little rummage around my collection of old kite stuff and turned up a copy of the kite patent by Viney and Pocock, as well as the two classic Pocock books of 1827 and 1851, and various other stuff that included authentic instructions on building the kites and kite carriage. The …

In early December this past year I had the opportunity to visit Mr. Nguyen Huu Kiem, the 4th generation kite builder and guiding light of the kite building community of Ba Duong Noi, a village about 15 miles up the Red River from the center of Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Vietnamese f r iends f rom Ha Noi had made hi s acquaintance last year when he made and sent me a traditional bamboo kite whistle with three tubes. How exactly I came to get a kite whistle from him is a story I need to tell here.

A sugoroku is a Japanese woodblock print meant to be used as a game board. They were usually produced to be New Year’s gifts and depicted popular subjects to make them appealing to parents and children: scenes from the Tokaido Road, views of Mt. Fuji, neighborhood maps of old Edo districts, and so forth. The game was much like “Chutes and Ladders” with a die to send players to sugoroku squares on which instructions would send them forward or back.