Skip to main content

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 final product . This plastic is the typical plastic grocery bag.
Figure 2: Comparison of plastics

An issue we are facing is making the kite maintain its angle. This prototype is being held together with tape, which is not the sturdiest form of adhesion. Before each test the angle has to be adjusted. To solve this we need to find a way to put the kite together that is sturdier than tape, but light enough that it does not negatively affect the flight of  the kite.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Weekly Update: Week 8

This week we focused on getting quantitative data. Over the term we have evolved our prototype. This resulted in having four versions. We wanted to test each one to see if our final design is really the best. To start we collected glide ratios for each prototype. We were surprised to see that one of our early prototypes glided better and further than our current prototype. The early prototype glided 15 feet while the current prototype glided only 9 feet. Because of this finding we decided we wanted to test each with a line attached. Just because a kite glides well does not mean it has good control in the air. through this test we found that our current prototype offers more control in the air. We believe this is due to its dihedral shape. The other prototype is flat and had no way of correcting itself when it got off balance. The dihedral shape offered more lateral stability. Taking both tests into account we decided that the current prototype is in fact the better of the two proto...
Post a Comment
Read more