Project Overview

The goal of this project is to design an indoor kite. The inspiration for this kite is nature.
The materials used are recycled and/ or natural. The frame of the kite is made of bamboo skewers, a strong, light weight wood. The body of the kite is covered in a light weight recycled plastic from a typical plastic grocery bag. Figure 1 shows the materials used to build the kite.

Figure 1: Materials used in kite

The shape of the kite is loosely based on a delta kite. The triangular shape of the kite was inspired by the delta shape. The shape was then modified to make the kite a dihedral. This added stability to the kite. To achieve this the horizontal cross bar was split in half and each side was angled upward. Figure 2 is an uncovered version of the kite showing the dihedral.

Figure 2: Uncovered version of kite showing dihedral

This kite is relatively small with a length of 10 inches and a width of 16 inches. The kite is small enough to safely fly indoors. The kite is user controlled through a single string. To make the kite fly the user must generate his/her own wind by walking or manipulating the string.

Figure 3 shows the final version of the kite.

Figure 3: Final model of kite

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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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