Man-lifting kite
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A man-lifting kite is a
kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...
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 20th century. Recreational man-lifting kites gradually gained popularity through the latter half of the 20th century, branching into multiple sports. In the 21st century man-lifting kites are often used in
kitesurfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, or snow surface. It combines aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and wak ...
, where brief launches can be followed by safe water landings and
parasailing Parasailing, also known as parascending, paraskiing or parakiting, is a recreational kiting activity where a person is towed behind a vehicle while attached to a specially designed canopy wing that resembles a parachute, known as a parasail ...
, where kites are towed behind a vehicle.


Early history

Man-carrying kites were used in ancient
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, for both civil and military purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment. The ''
Book of Sui The ''Book of Sui'' (''Suí Shū'') is the official history of the Sui dynasty. It ranks among the official Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written by Yan Shigu, Kong Yingda, and Zhangsun Wuji, with Wei Zheng as the lead author. ...
'', dating from
636 Year 636 ( DCXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 636 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became t ...
CE, records that the tyrant Gao Yang,
Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi Emperor Wenxuan of (Northern) Qi ((北)齊文宣帝) (526–559), personal name Gao Yang (高洋, Wade–Giles: Kao Yang), courtesy name Zijin (子進), Xianbei name Hounigan (侯尼干), was the founding Emperor of China, emperor of the Northern ...
(r. 550-559), executed prisoners by ordering them to 'fly' using bamboo mats. The (1044) ''
Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...
'' records that in 559, all the condemned kite airmen died except for
Eastern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Eastern Wei (), was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei dynasty. One of the Northern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Eastern We ...
prince
Yuan Huangtou Yuan Huangtou (; died in 559) was the son of emperor Yuan Lang of Northern Wei dynasty of China. At that time, paramount general Gao Yang took control of the court of Northern Wei's branch successor state Eastern Wei and set the emperor as a pupp ...
. "Gao Yang made Yuan Huangtou uan Huang-Thouand other prisoners take off from the Tower of the Phoenix attached to paper owls. Yuan Huangtou was the only one who succeeded in flying as far as the Purple Way, and there he came to earth." The Purple Way, a road, was 2.5 km from the approximately 33 metre tall Golden Phoenix Tower. Stories of man-carrying kites also occur in Japan, following the introduction of the kite from China around the seventh century AD. In one such story the Japanese thief
Ishikawa Goemon was a legendary Japanese outlaw hero who stole gold and other valuables to give to the poor. He and his son were boiled alive in public after their failed assassination attempt on the Sengoku period warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His legend lives ...
(1558–1594) is said to have used a man-lifting kite to allow him to steal the golden scales from a pair of ornamental fish images which were mounted on the top of Nagoya Castle. His men manoeuvered him into the air on a trapeze attached to the tail of a giant kite. He flew to the rooftop where he stole the scales, and was then lowered and escaped. It is said that at one time there was a law in Japan against the use of man-carrying kites. In 1282, the European explorer Marco Polo described the Chinese techniques then current and commented on the hazards and cruelty involved. To foretell whether a ship should sail, a man would be strapped to a kite having a rectangular grid framework and the subsequent flight pattern used to divine the outlook.


Industrial age

In the 1820s British inventor
George Pocock Admiral Sir George Pocock or Pococke, KB (6 March 1706 – 3 April 1792) was a British officer of the Royal Navy. Family Pocock was born in Thames Ditton in Surrey, the son of Thomas Pocock, a chaplain in the Royal Navy. His great grandfa ...
developed man-lifting kites, using his own children as guinea pigs. In the early 1890s, Captain B.F.S Baden-Powell, brother of the founder of the scouting movement and soon to become President of the
Aeronautical Society of Great Britain The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...
, developed his "Levitor" kite, a hexagonal-shaped kite intended to be used by the army in order to lift a man for aerial observation or for lifting large loads such as a wireless antenna. At Pirbright Camp on June 27, 1894, he used one of the kites to lift a man 50 feet (15.25 m) off the ground. By the end of that year he was regularly using the kite to lift men above 100 ft (30.5 m). Baden-Powell's kites were sent to
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
for use in the
Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
, but by the time they arrived the fighting was over, so they were never put into use.
Lawrence Hargrave Lawrence Hargrave, MRAeS, (29 January 18506 July 1915) was a British-born Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer. Biography Lawrence Hargrave was born in Greenwich, England, the second son of John Fletc ...
had invented his
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 s ...
in 1885, and from it he developed a man-carrying rig by stringing four of them in line. On 12 November 1894 he attached the rig to the ground on a long wire and lifted himself from the beach in
Stanwell Park, New South Wales Stanwell Park is a coastal village and northern suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. It is the northernmost point of the Illawarra coastal strip and lies south of Sydney's Royal National Park. It is situated in a small valley betw ...
, reaching a height of 16 feet (4.9 m). The combined weight of his body and the rig was 208 lb (94.5 kg). Alexander Graham Bell developed a
tetrahedral kite A tetrahedral kite is a multicelled rigid box kite composed of tetrahedrally 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. The kite can be desc ...
, constructed of sticks arranged in a honeycomb of triangular sections, called cells. Bell and his team, the
Aerial Experiment Association The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. The AEA produced several different aircraft in quick succession, with eac ...
, also developed biplane structures and curved wing shapes. The group correctly predicted the reduced structural requirements would provide a better lift-to-weight ratio; large contemporary box designs increased in weight faster than their lift, but a tetrahedral kite could be expanded with a near-constant ratio. Bell's team flew over water to reduce the risk both to the aviator and machine, writing: "If the man is able to swim, and the machine to float upon water, little damage need be anticipated to either". His first large experiment with self-similar tetrahedral patterns was "The Frost King" with 1300 cells, weighing 288 lbs (131 kg) including the aviator. Bell advanced in models from the "Cygnet I", "Cygnet II", and "Cygnet III", reaching a 3,393 cell model; the 40 foot (12.2 m) long, 200 lb (91 kg) kite was towed by a steamer in
Baddeck Bay 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 ...
,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
on December 6, 1907 and carried a man 168 feet (51.2 m) above the sea.
Samuel Franklin Cody Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody; 6 March 1867 – 7 August 1913, born Davenport, Iowa, USA)) was a Wild West showman and early pioneer of manned flight. He is most famous for his work on the large kites known a ...
was the most successful of the man-lifting kite pioneers. He patented a kite in 1901, incorporating improvements to Hargrave's double-box kite. He proposed that its man-lifting capabilities be used for military observation. After a stunt in which he crossed the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
in a boat drawn by a kite, he attracted enough interest from the
Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...
and the
War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
for them to allow him to conduct trials between 1904 and 1908. He lifted a passenger to a new record height of 1,600 ft (488 m) on the end of a 4,000 ft (1,219 m) cable. The War Office officially adopted Cody's War Kites for the Balloon Companies of the
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
in 1906, and they entered service for observation on windy days when the Companies' observation balloons were grounded. Like Hargrave, Cody strung up a line of multiple kites to lift the aeronaut, while greatly improving on the details of the lifting gear. He later built a "glider kite" which could be launched on a tether like a kite but then released and flown back down as a glider. The Balloon Companies were disbanded in 1911 and were reformed as the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, forerunner of the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
.
Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...
, the polar explorer, commissioned tests on a man-lifting kite to see whether it would be suitable for observation in the Arctic, but the trials were unsatisfactory and the idea was never developed.


Modern kiting

A series of innovations in the late 20th and early 21st century revitalized interest in the field of people being lifted by kites for recreation. The growth of
water ski Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on two skis or one ski. The sport requires suffi ...
ing especially led to the idea of adding a kite, so that the skier could take off and fly. From the late 1950s, flat kites began to be used to propel the skier, while other kites were fitted with seats on the line pulled by a motorboat. The skier was able to marginally control these unstable flat kites by using swing seats that allowed their entire body weight to effect pitch and roll. Through the 1960s the
Rogallo wing The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of wing. In 1948, Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, and his wife Gertrude Rogallo, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing ...
was developed and many early types such as Australian John Dickenson in Australia Bill Bennett's Delta Wing series were developed as manned kites. John Worth adopted the cable-stayed triangle control frame at several scales in stiffened
Rogallo wing The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of wing. In 1948, Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, and his wife Gertrude Rogallo, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing ...
kite glider and powered versions. John Dickenson used a tow boat to kite himself in his adaptation of the Ryan flexible-wing craft, a version of the stiffened Rogallo-wing kite in September 1963. Dickenson's designs for man-lifting kites and gliders earned him several awards, with some organizations calling him the inventor of the modern hang glider. Fellow Australian Bill Bennett continued to develop and sell his Delta Wing series through the 1970s.Delta Wing Model 162
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. (Retrieved 28 January 2021)
The invention of the parafoil kite in 1964 and gradual adoption further enabled kites in watersports, as parafoil sails provide tremendous lift and can be controlled as a multiline kite. Parachute-powered water skiing spread around the world as a sport by the 1970s. Over the next two decades, parafoils were increasingly seen alongside parachutes, and single line lift systems were replaced with steerable multi-line configurations.Peter Lyn
A brief history of kitesurfing
, Aquilandia.com, 2006


References


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * * *David Pelham. 1976. ''The Penguin Book of Kites''. Penguin. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Man-Lifting Kite Kites Chinese inventions