How to Make an Indoor Canard Kite

On this page are a number of easy steps showing you how to make an indoor canard kite from readily available materials. 

The only materials required for this design are

• One sheet of plain copier paper—A4 or Letter size. Use colored paper if you want to!
• 18 mm (3/4 in.) clear sticky tape, in a dispenser preferably. Narrower tape would be even better, if you have it.
• A light plastic bag, at least 45 cm x 30 cm (18 in. x 12 in.) before being cut open. I used large freezer bags. 
• Any polyester sewing thread, preferably the lightest available.

The tools required, if you can call them that, are

• A pair of scissors.
• A ruler.
• A straight edge longer than 45 cm (18 in.).
• A ballpoint pen.
• Colored permanent markers.

Note: In the photos below, yellow lines have been added to make clear where the edges of sticky tape are.

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Step 1—Make Sail

• Lay down a plastic bag, and smooth it out to remove the most obvious folds and creases.
• Measure and mark dots as indicated in the photo.

• Flip the bag over.
• Mark dots over the two showing through the plastic. See to the left in the photo above.

• Cut the bag along the sealed edge, to open it.
• Cut the bag along the opposite side to the side with seven dots.
• Open the bag out into a single flat sheet, with the dots on top. In the photo you can see all 11 dots. 
  

• Using the dots to guide you, rule lines as shown in the (enhanced) photo.
• Also rule lines as indicated by the measurements, to complete the canard shape.

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Step 2—Decorate Sail

Do you have permanent colored markers? It's time to take them out.

• My approach was to put a 0.6 cm (1/4 in.) wide border of black all around on the inside of the upper and lower sail outlines. This was followed by 1 cm (3/8 in.) wide colored stripes down each side of the two centerlines, 0.6 cm (1/4 in.) apart. See the photo.
• You do whatever you like! Just try not to add too much weight though. Doing "sparing line art" is how to make an indoor canard kite look good and minimize weight.

• Cut all around the outside of the sails and tethers with scissors. Cutting thin plastic can be tricky so take your time. Sharp scissors help!
• Cut out the inside panels, leaving the upper and lower sails connected by three straps as shown.
• From here on, we will refer to the plastic piece as the sail.

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Step 3—Make Spars

Measure and Draw

• Take your sheet of paper and mark dots as shown.

Note: Each white line—even if it is so short it looks like a dot—has a corresponding measurement nearby.

• With ruler and pen, connect the dots as shown.

Laminate and Cut Out 

• Lay down sticky tape to fully cover the shapes. A small amount of overlap is OK.

• Flip the paper over so you can add tape to the reverse side of all the shapes. It might help to place the paper up against a well-lit window, to trace the corners. Another way is to poke holes through the paper with a pin, at all the corners. Then you can see where all the shapes are.

• Cut out all the shapes, as shown.

Join Vertical Spar Pieces

• Lay down the two pieces with the widest ends, bringing those two ends together. Although there is no continuous straight edge, do your best to align the pieces as shown, by eye.
• Tape the pieces together at the join. Use just enough tape to go once around the entire join.

Fold Lengthwise

• Fold all the shapes in half, down their lengths as shown.
• Crease all the folds sharply. The thin ends are tricky, but it can be done! Just do the best you can, by working along from the thicker ends and it should be OK. Pinching between thumbnail and forefinger works well.
• What you have now is a vertical spar (the longest piece), two horizontal spars (the next longest pieces), the cross member (wider in the middle) and two battens (the smallest pieces).

At this point, you're about halfway through learning how to make an indoor canard kite! The hardest bits have been done already, I'd say.

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Step 4—Attach Spars

Tape Vertical Spar

• Flip the sail so the art work is against the table.
• Take the vertical spar and align the narrow end to the top corner of the upper sail. Also ensure the fold angle is 90 degrees or a little less.

• At the top corner of the upper sail, place a short strip of sticky tape across the fold line of the spar.
• Gently press down on both sides, so the tape goes down then across to the left and right.
• With scissors, trim the overhanging tape flush with the sail edges. See the photo.

• At the bottom corner of the main sail, lay down a 4 cm (1 1/2 in.) strip of tape as indicated in the photo.

• Sharpen the crease a little if necessary, so the paper sits at about 90 degrees over the plastic.
• Just below the join line in the vertical spar, add a short strip of tape as shown.
• Trim off any excess tape, along the edges of the plastic. 

Tape Horizontal Spars

• Check the fold in a horizontal spar and sharpen the crease if necessary to get that 90 degree fold angle.
• Tape the spar in place over the lower sail, positioning the wide end to get it horizontal. It's OK to let the narrow end go flat against the plastic when taped.
• With scissors, trim the overhanging tape and the spar tip so it all looks neat and tidy around the side corner of the sail. See the photo.

• Do the same to the other side of the kite. The photo shows both horizontal-spar pieces taped in place.

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Step 5—Attach Cross Member

• If no marks are visible halfway along the cross member, make one now, measuring with a ruler for accuracy.
• Place the cross member onto the horizontal spars, aligning the central mark(s) with the fold in the vertical spar.
• Stick one end of the cross member onto a horizontal spar as shown, using a square of sticky tape. Be careful not to flatten the spar.

• Now support the horizontal spar with some handy object underneath the sail corner.
• Shift the supporting object until the spar tip is 3 cm (1 1/8 in.) clear of the tabletop.
• Gently place a square of sticky tape over the other end of the cross member, so it too is stuck to the cross spar.
• Make sure the sticky tape is stuck firmly, then remove the supporting object.

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Step 6—Attach Battens

• Take a batten and sharpen the crease if necessary.
• Position the batten over one wingtip, in from the plastic's edge by about half the batten's width.
• Place a square of tape over the top and bottom ends of the batten as shown in the photo.
• Trim off any overhanging tape with scissors.

• In the same way, add the remaining batten to the other wingtip. There they both are, in the photo.

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Step 7—Attach Flying Line

You have pretty much finished learning how to make an indoor canard kite at this point!

• Flip the kite over so the spars are against the table.
• Cut off about 2 meters (6 feet) of polyester sewing thread and lay one end over the join line in the vertical spar.
• Stick down at least 3 cm (1 in.) of the thread by lining up a 3 cm (1 in.) strip of sticky tape with the join line, as shown in the photo. Press to the left and to the right of the thread, to avoid flattening the paper spar.
• Stick down another, shorter, length of tape, going across this time instead of down. See the photo.

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Step 8—Flying!

This is a very low-speed kite and it will effortlessly float up at walking pace. Be careful not to jerk the thread or pull too quickly, since this will promptly fold up at least one of the spars!

If a spar does fold up, don't despair. Just carefully pinch the paper where it failed, to get it back into that V-shape section once again. Then try again, going a little slower or smoother this time.

The Launch Technique

This is how I like to launch, on a length of thread equal to your shoulder height:

• Lay the kite flat on the floor, with the thread on top of course and the tail end pointing at your feet.
• Lift gently straight up, while taking a couple of quick steps backward.
• If the kite appears to be rising, turn around and walk forward while looking back over your shoulder.
• Within seconds, you should see the kite floating behind. Walk a little faster to climb the kite, slow down to descend. It's a fine balance!

If you have the space, try letting out more thread and adjusting your speed until the kite cruises along just short of the ceiling. Look out for light fittings and so on. Look where you're going too, from time to time ;-)

If you need even more line length, just tie on more thread and wind it onto a small square of cardboard.

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to make an indoor canard kite this way.

 

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