27 m Peter Lynn Octopus kite flown at Cervia International Kite Festival, Italy 2007. The multi line bridle is connected to a single kite line of 4 mm spectra
The ram-airinflatable single-line kite is one of the few modern inventions in the world of kite design. Although Francis Rogallo's early kite patents had ram-air members in the claims, Domina Jalbert's parafoil ram-air wing, patented in 1944, emphatically changed the kite airscape for inflatable kites.
A parafoil is a nonrigid (textile) airfoil with an aerodynamic cell structure which is inflated by the wind. Ram-air inflation forces the parafoil into a classic wing cross-section. Parafoils are most commonly constructed out of ripstop nylon.
A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the face of the kite so the wind can lift it. Some kite designs don’t need a bridle; box kites can have a single attachment point. A kite may have fixed or moving anchors that can balance the kite. One technical definition is that a kite is “a collection of tether-coupled wing sets“.
Francis Melvin Rogallo was an American aeronautical engineer inventor born in Sanger, California, U.S.; he is credited with the invention of the Rogallo wing, or "flexible wing", a precursor to the modern hang glider and paraglider. His patents were ranged over mechanical utility patents and ornamental design patents for wing controls, airfoils, target kite, flexible wing, and advanced configurations for flexible wing vehicles.
Kytoons and balloon kites are inflatable kites. Kites sometimes combine ram-air inflation as well as closed-bladder inflation. The shape is loosely derived from an airfoil with air inlets usually at the front, and a bridle which distributes the tether line loads evenly across the whole base of the kite. These kites have no rigid spars.
A kytoon or kite balloon is a tethered aircraft which obtains some of its lift dynamically as a heavier-than-air kite and the rest aerostatically as a lighter-than-air balloon. The word is a portmanteau of kite and balloon.
A bridle is a piece of equipment used to direct a horse. As defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, the "bridle" includes both the headstall that holds a bit that goes in the mouth of a horse, and the reins that are attached to the bit.
The immense strength of synthetic fabrics allows the creation of non-rigid three-dimensional shapes which hold their shape because the pressure of the air inside the kite is slightly higher than the pressure outside.
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line. A surface such as a plane or the surface of a cylinder or sphere has a dimension of two because two coordinates are needed to specify a point on it – for example, both a latitude and longitude are required to locate a point on the surface of a sphere. The inside of a cube, a cylinder or a sphere is three-dimensional because three coordinates are needed to locate a point within these spaces.
Pressure is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the ambient pressure.
As with hot air balloons, artistic creativity is often applied, so that fish, cats, and many other animals and characters are depicted. Sizes range from 2 m in length to 65 m. The world's largest kites are inflatable single-line kites designed and made by New Zealand kitemaker Peter Lynn.
Peter Lynn is a New Zealand kitemaker, engineer and inventor. He is notable for his construction of the world's largest kites, giant inflatable (sparless) display kites, the popularisation of kite buggying and contributions to the development of power kiting and kitesurfing. He spends much of the year travelling worldwide and displaying his kites at International Kite Festivals.
Types of inflatable single-line kites
Ram-air-only soft fully flexible kite
Ram-air-only inflation with spars also
Gas inflatable kytoons. These are variously inflated with air, helium, hydrogen. When the kite wing is heavier-than-air, then the kytoon needs relative wind to fly. When the kite wing is lighter-than-air then the kytoon will stay aloft when the relative wind is below what is needed for kiting.
Kites that combine both ram-air inflation and gas-bladders that are inflated.
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift, while moving through air or some other fluid. As such, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expressed as its lift-to-drag ratio. The lift a wing generates at a given speed and angle of attack can be one to two orders of magnitude greater than the total drag on the wing. A high lift-to-drag ratio requires a significantly smaller thrust to propel the wings through the air at sufficient lift.
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. NASA considered Rogallo's flexible wing as an alternative recovery system for the Mercury and Gemini space capsules, and for possible use in other spacecraft landings, but the idea was dropped from Gemini in 1964 in favor of conventional parachutes.
An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflatables depend on the presence of a gas to maintain their size and shape. Function fulfillment per mass used compared with non-inflatable strategies is a key advantage. Stadium cushions, impact guards, vehicle wheel inner tubes, emergency air bags, and inflatable space structures employ the inflatable principle. Inflation occurs through several strategies: pumps, ram-air, billowing, and suction.
A buoyancy compensator, also called a buoyancy control device, BC, BCD, stabilizer, stabilisor, stab jacket, wing or ABLJ depending on design, is a piece of diving equipment with an inflatable bladder which is worn by divers to establish neutral buoyancy underwater and positive buoyancy on the surface, when needed. The buoyancy is controlled by adjusting the volume of air in the bladder. The bladder is filled with ambient pressure gas from the diver's primary breathing gas cylinder via a low-pressure hose from the regulator first stage, directly from a small cylinder dedicated to this purpose, or from the diver's mouth through the oral inflation valve.
An aerostat is a lighter than air aircraft that gains its lift through the use of a buoyant gas. Aerostats include unpowered balloons and powered airships. A balloon may be free-flying or tethered. The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, because its main component is one or more gasbags, a lightweight skin containing a lifting gas to provide buoyancy, to which other components such as a gondola containing equipment or people are attached. Especially with airships, the gasbags are often protected by an outer envelope.
The Helikite is a type of kite-balloon or kytoon designed by Sandy Allsopp in the UK in 1993. The Helikite comprises a combination of a helium balloon and a kite to form a single, aerodynamically sound tethered aircraft, that exploits both wind and helium for its lift.
A kite balloon is a tethered balloon which is aerodynamically optimised for windy conditions by making it directionally stable and by minimising aerodynamic resistance to the wind, or drag. It typically comprises a streamlined envelope with stabilising features and a harness or yoke connecting it to the main tether.
The sled kite was invented and patented by the American, William Allison in the 1950s. This kite helped pave the way for a class of kites known as "semi-rigid."
A glider is a heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining the altitude with some being powerful enough to take off self-launch.
Kites are tethered flying objects which fly by using aerodynamic lift, requiring wind for generation of airflow over the lifting surfaces.
Kites are given mooring by many methods. Watercraft and aircraft traditionally have the term "mooring" applied to making the watercraft or aircraft fast to some external object. The kite has two parts: wing and kite line; the kite essentially needs mooring to either a mobile or fixed object in order to develop the tension in the kite line that gets converted to lift and drag to have the kite fly in its media. Governments frequently have regulations about the mooring of atmospheric balloons and atmospheric kites that are operated in governed airspace. The United States Federal Aviation Regulation Part 101 regulates the mooring of qualified kites and balloons in airspace that the U.S. governs; those regulations do not apply to ungoverned spaces and special ambient flying media.
The Bede Wing was an inflated hang glider, designed in the 1970s by aeronautical engineer Jim Bede. Intended as a safer alternative to conventional hang gliders, it resembled an early ram-air parachute, but instead was an inflatable structure, that could be filled with air for gliding, or with helium to act as a gas balloon.
A pneumatic bladder is an inflatable (pneumatic) bag technology with many applications.
An aerostat is an aircraft that remains aloft through the use of lighter-than-air gases. A narrower and more technical meaning refers only to tethered balloons.
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