Ken Winner wrote:Birds, wasps, stunt kites, and planes are rigid.
ALL high performance aircraft (eg hang-gliders vs paragliders) have rigid structures.
Rigid hang gliders out-perform soft paragliders on all measures. Interestingly,
the trend in paragliders is towards increased rigidity, e.g. stiff mylar reinforcements,
plastic stiffeners in the leading edges and carbon fibre rods sewn into the ribs.
These stiffening innovations have resulted in paragliders that are so successful in competition
that old-style soft gliders are no longer competitive.
Similarly, kite manufacturers are always looking for ways to make kites more internally rigid,
eg by joining the struts firmly to the leading edge, adding fifth lines, and mini-bridles.
rowboat wrote:think about it – you could enter a race on a Cloud
Aummm wrote:Ken Winner wrote:
Similarly, kite manufacturers are always looking for ways to make kites more internally rigid,
eg by joining the struts firmly to the leading edge, adding fifth lines, and mini-bridles.
It could very well have gone the same way as windsurf slalom sails.Beachboy wrote:Naish experimented with a strutless kite 10 years ago. It had a small diameter inflatable leading edge and the canopy was a self inflating twinskin foil . Very much like a like a Peter Lynn Arc. It flew on four lines. I saw Don Montague fly it at Kailua. I was very excited about thid hybrid design, but never heard more of it. Can anybody fill in the blanks?
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