High Pressure kite by Bruno Legaignoux

[Toby]

What diameter did the Best Hellfish have back then?

[JakeFarley]

My HP Nemisis is an example where higher pressures are needed for kites with smaller dia. leading edges. If I do not pump up the LE enough, it tends to "jellyfish" in high winds. It has a small dia. LE made of Cuben fiber. I pump it up so that it is very hard and pings when I thump it.

[edt]

What diameter did the Best Hellfish have back then?

About half I think. But half the diameter would mean 1/4 of the volume because the area of a cylinder with a fixed lengths goes as pi r^2 and you would need 4 times the pressure for the same stiffness.

[a99]

Real future of kiteboarding is personal kite drone, draging you in zero wind. Also filming you in self mode and etc.
This will come, next 10-20 years with imporovement of batteries and probably with solar battery possibility too:) And as it will costs event 3000-4000 usd you will buy it much lovely than thre kites of different sizes and you dont need to care about new kite upgreads and etc, no pumps, no danger in launches and etc. Bright future coming quickly

[edt]

That's not kiteboarding that's wakeboarding. Not for me. I also like regular skateboards and think the motorized electric skateboards are like being on a motorized wheelchair. Give me the wind and a kite tks. You can buy a winch right now for about $2,000 that allows you access to all kinds of awesome ponds and streams if you want to wakeboard, it's more cost effective than a drone and will run all day, again not like a drone which is going to need to be recharged every 30 minutes unless battery technology makes a huge leap. Drone-ing is super cool right now I think but only because it's new, once the novelty wears off everyone that is using a drone will go back to winching.

[IainMacaskill]

Real future of kiteboarding is personal kite drone, draging you in zero wind. Also filming you in self mode and etc.
This will come, next 10-20 years with imporovement of batteries and probably with solar battery possibility too:) And as it will costs event 3000-4000 usd you will buy it much lovely than thre kites of different sizes and you dont need to care about new kite upgreads and etc, no pumps, no danger in launches and etc. Bright future coming quickly

Can't say I'm looking forward to replacing the sound of foiling with four props buzzing away like a massive swarm. You might as well just buy a jet ski and sell your soul to Satan.

[kitexpert]

What diameter did the Best Hellfish have back then?

About half I think. But half the diameter would mean 1/4 of the volume because the area of a cylinder with a fixed lengths goes as pi r^2 and you would need 4 times the pressure for the same stiffness.

More. In general if diameter of a beam is halved stiffness is reduced to 1/2^3 = 1/8 of original.

[Peter_Frank]

Agree fully with edt and IainMacaskill, we dont want or need "wakeboarding" which is a totally different sport, far away from the wind powered lovely sport we got.

There is a reason why so few do both - some freestylers yes, but overall not many.

So bring it on, every new type of kite is interesting, lets see where it leads us - as long as we can use the wind, both 5 knots for extreme foiling, or 35 knots for TT megaloops, loving it all

Peter

[edt]

More. In general if diameter of a beam is halved stiffness is reduced to 1/2^3 = 1/8 of original.

where are you getting that cube from? the axial stress is proportional to the square of the radius right?

[kitexpert]

More. In general if diameter of a beam is halved stiffness is reduced to 1/2^3 = 1/8 of original.

where are you getting that cube from? the axial stress is proportional to the square of the radius right?

I learned/thought it like this: Bigger diameter structure (tube) has a benefit for rigidity for two reasons: 1) material of it is further from where forces affect ("leverage" benefit) 2) there is more material there (larger diameter=larger circumference=larger area).

Assuming tube has same wall thickness I think this is valid and explains why stiffness increases in cube of diameter.