And Why Not Kites?

What Are Kites, How To Build Them, Miniature Kites, And Everything You May Want To Ask About Kites

Most kids know about kites even before they've seen a paper airplane. In countries like Afghanistan kites are so popular that even the Taliban ban over them couldn't stop kites. They are maybe the oldest type of flying toys. Albeit they aren't technically model airplanes we'll be starting a section dedicated to kites here.

Here is what you'll want to know as a beginning:

History Of Kites

Kites are a lot older than the balloons and aircraft. Almost three thousand years ago the first kites appeared in China. This country keeps the tradition of making and flying the best kites even today. From China kite flying was propagated through India, Korea and the rest of Asia. Surprisingly for many fans kites were brought to Japan at least 7-8 centuries later when Buddhists flown them there.

Kites were then brought to Europe by Marco Polo at the end of 13th century. Then they spread further over the world. The golden age of kites came in 18th and 19th century when they were used for practical purposes - scientific research, enemy observation etc.

Nowadays kites are mostly used for entertainment or advertising.

For more detailed history of kites look at this page.

Some Interesting Kite Types

You can make a paper kite right now. Just take a sheet of paper and follow this instructable. Or another one. There are hundreds like this. Paper kites are very popular because they are cheap, easy to do yourself, and fun.

Or maybe you'll prefer to fly a bird kite. Bird kites look as birds and are often used to combine fun with children education. You can find many different bird kites on the market but making one yourself from paper is also easy - especially if you use some good bird kite templates (pdf).

There are also butterfly kites which look like beautiful (or sometimes scary) butterflies.

Foil kites are soft and made of different cells. Some of the cells allow air circulation while other are closed. They look quite similar to paragliders and are often used for kite surfing.

Now people are also crazy about Japanese kites. Although kites came later in Japan, people there developed the craft to unprecedented height creating amazingly painted kites. Just see these stunning collections of pictures.

If you prefer something modern you may want to have a helicopter kite. Not just it looks like a helicopter - it actually flies like one! Yes, it doesn't look as realistic as our paper helicopter, but it flies. You can buy one of these helicopter or gyro kites for about $10 - $20, or of course make one yourself.

Excited? That's not enough. What about the 3d kites? They are a lot more complex and of course more expensive than the other kites. Making them yourself can be quite a challenge.

The Rotor kite is also in 3-d. It's better known as gyroglider and easily falls into the category of unpowered aircraft. Learn more about these great kites from Wikipedia.

Some kites also imitate a biplane and can fly quite well if you manage to find a good model. Aerodynamics is fairly important for them, otherwise you may end up with something beautiful which just rotates in the sky.

Living in apartment? Or it is too cold for flying a kite outside? No worries, there are indoor kites used when there is no wind... and well, indoors. Their prices often exceed $100 however!

An option to go around the high cost and still fly at home is to build or buy a miniature kite. Some of these are small enough to catch in a handful. And plans to make them can be found here.

Buying Kites

Buying kites is easy. The simple and most popular types of kites can be found in gift stores, toy stores or bookshops. Many more advanced kites can be found in our web store. For more specific types you may need to search the web and find other stores. And as a last resort, you can purchase a custom kite.

You can expect to pay somewhere from $5 to $250. The factory-made simple kites made of paper or plastic are cheapest. Indoor kites and 3d kites are on the higher end.

The only real advice I can give you about buying is to explore the different kinds of kites so you can decide what to buy.

Homemade Kites Or How You Can Make One Yourself

I mentioned few links with kite instructions earlier. We will publish some of our own guides pretty soon. Until then, here are some more ideas:

• 27 Kite Guides with illustrations and all
• How to make a traditional kite - you know, the kite with a rhomboid shape.
• How to make a simple paper kite - ~2min video
• Making a double butterfly kite.
• A plan for 3d kite and many more on Kite Plans Base.
• Making biplane kite - full plans and info.

I think kites are not less exciting than model airplanes. Don't you?

If you liked this article subscribe to our Free Newsletter

Post Your Comment  

User comments:

small private plane attorneys at Feb, 21 '12 22:55
I used to go kite flying when I was a kid and it was fun.
Reply to this comment