Weekly Update: Week 5

This week we made some huge strides. Since our first prototype, we have mainly been working to improve the same structure. We did this by changing the material and extending the frame. This week we decided to make a more drastic change. Instead of having a flat, triangular shaped kite, we now have a kite that has wings that are bent upwards. This increased the distance the kite glided by a huge amount.

The overall structure of the kite is still very similar to the first prototype. Instead of having one cross bar straight across horizontally through the middle, the cross bar is split in two pieces that are attached at an angle. To increase stability, cross bars, again attached at an angle were added towards the back of the kite. With this structure there is no need to add an extra skewer to the center of the kite. The weight in the back is not needed to balance the kite. The new prototype is shown in the figures below.

Figure One: Top View of kite

Figure Two: Bottom/Back View of Kite

As shown in the figures the sail is attached to the bottom of the kite. This allows the kite to catch the air. Having the sail attached this way poses the question of how to attach the line. The idea as of now is to attach the line from underneath through a hole in the sail. This will be a priority heading into next week.

As of right now the kite is being held together with tape. We have observed that after being stored for a few days the kite has flattened out. This is an issue that will need to be fixed before the kite is finalized. This could be fixed by hot gluing the kite together instead of taping it, or by tying the sides to each other.

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Weekly Update: Week 2

This week's lab session was dedicated to research. We did not have our materials, thus we could not start building prototypes just yet. Instead we looked into background information. We found many sites that gave us key information on how and why a kite flies. We also looked into technical kite terminology. This information helped us to understand why certain kite shapes acts the way they do. Through research, we found that the most successful indoor kites are based off of the Delta wing shape. This style of kite features a triangular shape. This shape allows the kite adjust to changes in wind. Figure 1 shows a an example of a Delta Kite. Figure 1: Example of Delta kite http://intothewind.com/delta-kites This shape maybe useful in our kite design. Our design is inspired by a flying bird. The Delta shape resembles a bird in some ways. A few modifications may be needed, but using this shape is definitely something to think about. In addition to research we also pla

Weekly Update: Week 6

This week was focused on further improving our prototype. We kept the same shape of the frame, however we spilt the skewers in half vertically, to make the kite lighter. This allowed the kite to glide further. Figure one shows the current prototype Figure 1: split skewer dihedral frame Another thing we did this week was try different plastics for the sail. We thought if we tried a stronger plastic, the kite would be stronger and more resistant to damage. The plastic we tried was thicker and stiffer than the plastic we had been using to test our prototypes. Figure two shows a comparison of the two plastics. The thinner plastic (brown) is shown on the left and the thicker plastic (white) is shown on the right. This added unnecessary weight and caused the kite to not glide as far. As a team we decided that good flight was better than strength, in this case. We took the thicker plastic off and went pack to the original thinner plastic. This is the plastic we will we use for the fina

Weekly Update: Week 4

This week was all about improving our prototype. The prototype that was made last week worked well enough but is was quite heavy. We decided to replace the chopsticks with bamboo skewers. The skewers are much lighter and happen to be a little bit longer. The basic frame of the kite stayed the same. However, the frame with the skewers did not require a second skewer to be put own the back of the center. To hold the frame together we decided to use hot glue for a stronger hold. To make the sail, we used the same type of plastic bag we used to make the sail for the previous prototype. We will start to test different plastics once we nail down a frame material and shape. This prototype worked much better than the original. It glided much better. This could be because it was much lighter. At one point we tried bending the frame. This did not work the way we had hoped. We undid it and restored the original shape. Another thing we worked on was attaching a string to the kite. At first we

grp070-11:Indoor Kite

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