Date: Fri, 29 Apr 1994 03:49:54 -1000 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu (Norman Miller) Message-Id: <2pr3a2$i49@yar.trincoll.edu> Organization: Trinity College, Hartford, CT Subject: Bow kites I recently bought a bow kite from Into the Wind. It's not in their catalog. Beautifully made, reasonably priced, and well-behaved aloft. The printed material that came with the kite is helpful but minimal. What I'd like to know (and haven't found in anything I've got) is some discussion of the aerodynamics of bowing. I've got it set at about 7" and haven't yet got around to experimenting. Any wisdom out there? Norman Miller = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 20:01:28 -1000 From: rock@netcom.com (Anne Rock) Message-Id: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services Subject: Re: Bow kites Norman Miller (nmiller@trincoll.edu) wrote: : I recently bought a bow kite from Into the Wind. It's not in their : catalog. Beautifully made, reasonably priced, and well-behaved aloft. : The printed material that came with the kite is helpful but minimal. : What I'd like to know (and haven't found in anything I've got) is some : discussion of the aerodynamics of bowing. I've got it set at about 7" : and haven't yet got around to experimenting. Any wisdom out there? : Norman Miller I don't know what you mean by a bow kite. Can you provide more of a description about shape and spars? (No guarantee I'd know what to suggest.) Anne -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * | * * Anne Rock | * * rock@netcom.com | * * Berkeley, CA | * * | * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Wed, 4 May 1994 11:19:42 -1000 From: nmiller@trincoll.edu (Norman Miller) Message-Id: <2q93he$gnt@yar.trincoll.edu> Organization: Trinity College, Hartford, CT Subject: Re: Bow kites In article , Anne Rock wrote: >Norman Miller (nmiller@trincoll.edu) wrote: >: I recently bought a bow kite from Into the Wind. It's not in their >: catalog. Beautifully made, reasonably priced, and well-behaved aloft. > >: The printed material that came with the kite is helpful but minimal. >: What I'd like to know (and haven't found in anything I've got) is some >: discussion of the aerodynamics of bowing. I've got it set at about 7" >: and haven't yet got around to experimenting. Any wisdom out there? > >: Norman Miller > > >I don't know what you mean by a bow kite. Can you provide more of >a description about shape and spars? (No guarantee I'd know what >to suggest.) > >Anne > My bow kite is like a large diamond kite. The difference is that a line runs from one side to the other (alongside the cross spar) and this line, when tightened, causes the kite to change from flat to bowed appearance. Somewhat like a curved or bowed shield. nm = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 16:20:41 -1000 From: mark@murder.demon.co.uk (Mark de Roussier) Message-Id: <768216041snx@murder.demon.co.uk> Organization: damage Subject: Re: Bow kites In article <2q93he$gnt@yar.trincoll.edu> nmiller@trincoll.edu (Norman Miller) writes: > [ stuff delete ] > My bow kite is like a large diamond kite. The difference is that a line > runs from one side to the other (alongside the cross spar) and this line, > when tightened, causes the kite to change from flat to bowed appearance. > Somewhat like a curved or bowed shield. > >From Pelham, an 'Eddy Bow Kite'. Calls it 'A high water mark in western kite design'. Goes on to quote Eddy as saying that the spar should be 'preferably slightly curved' !!! The diagram supplied implies a depth-span ratio of 1:10, so I'd start there. -- Mark de Roussier ************************************ A nice man is a man of nasty ideas. Jonathon Swift. ************************************ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Thu, 5 May 1994 15:23:12 -1000 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka) Message-Id: <2qc660$shl@umd5.umd.edu> Organization: University of Maryland, College Park Subject: Re: Bow kites In article <2q93he$gnt@yar.trincoll.edu> nmiller@trincoll.edu (Norman Miller) writes: >My bow kite is like a large diamond kite. The difference is that a line >runs from one side to the other (alongside the cross spar) and this line, >when tightened, causes the kite to change from flat to bowed appearance. >Somewhat like a curved or bowed shield. Actually, this is quite common in diamond (and other shaped) kites. The traditional bowed diamond is referred to as a Malay or Eddy kite. The basic concept has been around for centuries, but it was made popular at the end of the 19th century by an American meterologist named William Eddy. Generally speaking, the kite has spine and spreader of equal lengths, with the spreader positioned ~200f the spar length from the top of the spine. There are, of course plenty of variations. Other common bowed kites include the rokkaku and edo. Similar to Anne, I've never heard of an Eddy being referred to as a "bow kite" but when I pulled out one of my older books, I was surprised to see a section heading reading "A Bow or Malay," in which the first paragraph begins, "Bow kites are those..." I'd have to say that this is an archaic term, though, based on the bibliographic information for the book I'm looking in: Hunt, Leslie. _25 Kites that Fly_. ISBN 0-486-22550-X "This Dover edition, first published in 1971, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published by The Bruce Publishing Company in 1929." The book *is* available from the KiteLines bookstore for $2.95 (!) According to the blurb in KiteLines, the author was a kitemaker for the US Weather Bureau. It's got some interesting designs, and I suspect it was the source of the pattern my dad and I used for the Conyne I entered in the Smithsonian Festival most of 20 years ago... Jeff -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Everything is still with a fear of never coming out | |Suffering Bad Grammar| Never following through / Never ever finishing | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | What we wanted to do." -- Melissa Ferrick | = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =