“Near perfection,” was the verdict of one foreign participant in last fall’s Taipei County International Kite Festival, held on a beach at the northern tip of Taiwan Island.

It’s an authentic labor of love, one man’s tribute to the kites he has admired since childhood. In an unlikely part of Taiwan, steep mountains 25 miles from the capital Taipei, Weng Hsiang Lai has created his own small, intensely personal kite museum, open to the public year around.

In the sky. Among the clouds. A kite at rest, still. A child’s kite. On it’s back, a child. A kite at rest, still. Something even our fine-feathered friends are incapable of achieving, this child’s kite in the sky with its passenger, unmoving. A point of stillness in the vast heavens.

Through surprising turns of fate, the Brookite company of Okehanpton, Dartmoor, in far southwest England, appears to be the oldest continuously operated kite company in England, and probably Europe. Brookite was registered as a business in 1906, although it may well been running before then, by the brothers Tommy and Walter Brooke. Mad for kites at a time when aviation was all the rage in Europe, the Brooke brothers peddled their kites at English beaches from a motorcycle. One brother flew kites, the other sold.

Modest to a fault, New York advertising executive Will Yolen in the l972-73 edition of Who’s Who in America billed himself as “kite-flying champion of the world.” There being no appreciable evidence for the claim, a newspaper columnist asked Yolen whether he constructed his own kites. “Did Babe Ruth make his own bats?” he demanded. “Does Heifeitz build violins?” “I took up kites as a warm weather leisure hobby because the existential concept of flying interests just about everybody, including me.” (Dr. Jeff Cain)

“We’re a friendly club,” one member of the North East Kite Fliers commented. Others nearby concurred. One produced an unasked for but much appreciated cup of tea for a guest as evidence of the general good will. Twenty years old and with 70 members, North East is unofficial host to the annual Sunderland weekend kite festival, one of the largest and best-run kite celebrations in England. The club embraces an area bounded by Counties Northumberland and Durham and the Tyne and Wear metropolitan region. It is just southeast of Scotland.

After 15 years, the annual kite retreat at Junction, Texas, retains its magic. Friendly people, kitemaking around the clock, sunny weather, a big sky, interesting wildlife, peace and quiet——-that’s Junction. Organized to a formula worked out by Betty Street and Dr. Bill Lockhart (Bettyandbill, Billandbetty, as they are known) and then continued on by regional enthusiasts after the two Texas Tech professors, of Lubbock, Texas, called it a day, the gathering over a long weekend last May emphasized casual creativity, as always.

It looks like a boxkite, but flies without a string. What is it? A Voltair Cube, that’s what, a radio-controlled airplane that has been giving a lot of people fun across the U.S. Invented by Dr. Lance Liotta, a research scientist at the National Cancer Institute, the device is built and marketed by Dan Prentice, of kite fame. Prentice formerly published American Kite magazine and for more than two decades has been marketing kiting materials.

Ed Wright, of Clayton, California, who died last spring at the age of 59, was a devoted kiteflier and kitemaker. Known to many in the kite world from his appearances at national and international kite festivals, and in particular for the wonderful Parafoils he made with his devoted wife Bonnie, Wright had another significant impact on the sport of kiting. He was involved in brainstorming the Drachen Foundation, then served on its board of directors after the foundation’s incorporation in l994. He will be succeeded on the board by his wife.

Since opening its new headquarters in Seattle some four years ago, the Drachen Foundation has welcomed visitors from around the world. For those kite enthusiasts who have not yet made the trip to the American Northwest, here’s a small view of the foundation both from outside and inside, complete with an introduction to some of the charming staff members. As Scott Skinner, president of the foundation, and Ali Fujino, administrator, say: “We want to meet you. With a library, archive, photo file, and large kite collection to view, we are at your service.