Kiteforum.com

Oldnbroken wrote:...put in production?
Please tell more.

Might get some info here: http://www.boardridingmaui.com/

John-B wrote:

Oldnbroken wrote:...put in production?
Please tell more.

Might get some info here: http://www.boardridingmaui.com/

I swear I Googled it a month ago, when this thread started, and this did not show up!

Its relaxing to spend some time visiting a digital environment where perfection is possible.
I find a natural beauty in the simplicity and mathematical precision of these curves.

Cool! There are obviously thousands of variables in kite design. What difference would it make if you made the wingtips straight across and squared-off, compared to that slight angle that you have in the above animation?

Induced drag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingtip_vortices)

esg wrote:Cool! There are obviously thousands of variables in kite design. What difference would it make if you made the wingtips straight across and squared-off, compared to that slight angle that you have in the above animation?

In any case: don't make holes in the wingtips like Naish does.
About the most stupid thing to do in aerodynamics - still they find customers to buy the wrong design.

esg - Thanks for your interest. In the spirit of simplest possible solutions, this project did start with squared-off wingtips. With later prototypes I revised the angle toward what you've commented on in the wireframe because, with this design specifically, that area seemed unsupported (even though it had a great deal of bridle tension though it), and seemingly useless. After a bit of tweaking, nothing was lost in removing that area, and it now matches more closely the angle of attack that it flies at. Like everything else for this project, if it isn't helpful, it was eliminated. I added, "with this design specifically" because I think a change in angle of attack or LE sweep would surely get a different result, and that squared off is great for other designs.

Also on this subject, I'm a pretty big fan at this point of wide wingtips for the steering characteristic they can have. And, while there would be other solutions, they do a great job of helping the canopy open during relaunch on this strutless design.

Gigi - Thank for the comment / link.

peterheirman - I've never tried, but my guess would be that we wouldn't feel a difference with or without the holes, because I doubt there's a whole lot of lift going on in that area (no pun intended). Would be easy to test by just patching over them, yeah? If/when there is lift, maybe the holes even do something useful for aerodynamics in certain circumstances to reduce stall? I dunno. Just keeping a positive open mind. I hope I don't offend you by supporting Naish, but I've flown a bunch of their kites over the years that I've found great, and truly feel they've done a great deal for our sport by pretty much putting it on the map.

Any news of the development of this strutless kite ? Nothing on the boardriding maui website...

Rumour floating around my beach is that Naish are going to pick up the design and release it as a 2114 kite - fact or fiction ?

If they do, I hope the keep the simplicity of the design, keep it minimal, no loud graphics, no gizmos and hyped-out features, most of all no ridiculous price.

Sweet!!! If they release it in 2114 I'll be 146 yrs old! Niiiiice!

GregK wrote:Any news of the development of this strutless kite ? Nothing on the boardriding maui website...

Rumour floating around my beach is that Naish are going to pick up the design and release it as a 2114 kite - fact or fiction ?

If they do, I hope the keep the simplicity of the design, keep it minimal, no loud graphics, no gizmos and hyped-out features, most of all no ridiculous price.

OK, 2114 was a typo ( thanks for pointing it out ), how about a 2014 release ?