A tetrahedral kite is a multicelled rigid
box kite
A box kite is a high performance kite, noted for developing relatively high lift; it is a type within the family of cellular kites. The typical design has four parallel struts. The box is made rigid with diagonal crossed struts. There are two sa ...
composed of
tetrahedral
In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...
ly shaped cells to create a kind of
tetrahedral truss. The cells are usually arranged in such a way that the entire kite is also a regular
tetrahedron
In geometry, a tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra or tetrahedrons), also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the o ...
. The kite can be described as a compound
dihedral kite
Bowed kites such as the Japanese rokkaku, and traditional versions of the more familiar "diamond" shaped kites such as the Malay or Eddy, are tensioned into a bow in order to improve their stability to the point where a tail often becomes unnecessa ...
as well.
This kite was invented by
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
. It came about from his experiments with
Hargrave's box kites and his attempts to build a kite that was scalable and big enough to carry both a man and a motor. As such, it was an early experiment on the road to manned flight. He worked on the kites between 1895 and 1910. Bell wrote about his discovery of this concept in the June 1903 issue of ''National Geographic'' magazine; the article was titled "Tetrahedral Principle in Kite Structure".
From an initial one-cell model, Bell advanced to a 3,393-cell "
Cygnet" model in 1907. This 40-foot-long (12.2 m), 200-pound (91 kilogram) kite was towed by a steamer offshore near
Baddeck, Nova Scotia
Baddeck () is a village in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in the centre of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake.
Local governance is provided by the rural municipality ...
, on December 6, 1907, and carried a man 168 feet (51.2 metres) above the water.
Bell also experimented with a large circular "tetrahedral truss" design during the same period.
The tetrahedral kite is stable and easy to fly, but is not a light-wind kite. The large number of structural spars makes it relatively heavy and it requires moderate to strong winds.
See also
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Kite types
Kites are tethered flying objects which fly by using aerodynamic lift, requiring wind (or towing) for generation of airflow over the lifting surfaces.
Various types of kites exist, depending on features such as material, shape, use, or operatin ...
*
Man-lifting kite
A man-lifting kite is a kite designed to lift a person from the ground. Historically, man-lifting kites have been used chiefly for reconnaissance. Interest in their development declined with the advent of powered flight at the beginning of the 20 ...
References
External links
Tetrahedral Kite Information
{{Kites
Kites