The home made twisted box kite

by Andrew
(USA)

There is a long story behind this unique specimen. Although this type of kite is found fairly often in the high end kiting stores, to me, spinning box does not mean nylon and carbon fiber spars that were shaped perfectly in the beginning. It means plastic, three different types of tape, hot glue, twine, and flying line.

I actually have about a year of kiting experience, although it did not take me long to get calibrated. I figured out designs of many varieties that are on your site, then designing these types of kites on my own. However, this time, I cast my net further than MBK.

The actual idea began when I purchased one of these kites for myself. It was a two-cell hexagonal twisted kite with six angled keels on each cell of the kite. I enjoyed flying it on the beach when I was there for the one day that actually had decent wind for it. I had taken a closer look at the dynamics of the design, and figured that it would not be hard to make one of these.

What I decided to build does not look a lot like the one that I purchased. I decided to build a square twisted box without the keels. A few pythagorean theorums later, I had a pretty good design for it. It was an original design, to let you know. It took about five hours to build, and the hot glue was necessary, because there were a lot of parts you had to hold while it was drying.

The design, on your site, would be considered an ultimate skewer kite, with three skewer main spars, and one and a half skewer cross spars. It still only has two sets of them, because there is a support system down the middle. The one point bridle is surprisingly effective.

It has been a month since I devised the kite. No, at least two, but, in the northern hemisphere, summer just ended, letting good winds through. Okay, so I had to wait for a hurricane to pass our coast before I got decent winds. Do not try this if you are in the hurricane, I said passed, barely bringing rain to where I am.

But the kite flew solidly, but swerved from left to right a lot. It ended when the cross spars got pulled out. I have a video before that happened, as well as a design, but I am not sure how to share it, since it is on another site.