Description
Cover Story: Trains, trains, trains! Stories on kite trains include: Valerie Govig on history and “kiternaut” Mike Weletyk, Jack Van Gilder on making them, Tom Van Sant on his trampoline kite and a Design Workshop on the Van Sant Trampoline, and Bill Lee’s Special One-Sheet Tissue Paper Delta. Survey: an invitation to participate. Departments: Letter from the Editor: a thank-you and a request; Innovations: Nick Day on heat-sealed polyethylene parafoils; Ultimate Questions: Mel Govig’s essay on the perfect kite; Kites Past: Valerie Govig and Bob Ingraham on the daughter-lifting kites of Domina Jalbert; What’s New: Kites: The Flare from Kites Kites Kites and Ultra Kite’s Firebird, our first stunt kite reviews, including the Peter Powell, Aerobat, Sky Tiger, Windjammer, Sky Cat, Sky-ro-gyro, Super Stunter and Dunford, plus a Bruce Pfund postscript on flying controllables; What’s New: Books: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Making and Flying Kites, by Dolan; Kites: How to Fly Them, How to Build Them, by Lloyd, Mitchell and Thomas; and The Mature Person’s Guide to Kites, Yo-Yos, Frisbees and Other Childlike Diversions, by Dickson; News From Here & There: the Marshall Space Flight Center Kite Derby, AL; a kite retailers’ seminar in San Francisco, and Hugh Harrison on his kite travels in CA; Jane Ambrose on a festival at Regis College, and Frances Weaver on national exposure for the Beulah Valley Association for Tethered Flight, CO; the Great Delaware Kite Festival at Cape Henlopen; the Smithsonian Kite Carnival, DC; Hugh Harrison on Will Yolen’s International Kite Flyoff and an excerpt from a W. Bruwer Van Graan’s travel diary, FL; Beverly Chang on the Ben Franklin Kite Contest in Waipahu and the Oahu Kite Flying Contest, HI: the 1st Indianapolis Open Kite Festival, IN: the 5th annual New Orleans Kite Festival, LA; annual meeting of the Maryland Kite Society; a children’s kitefly in Cambridge, MD; Steve Smith on activities in Missoula and Kalispell, MT; “Flight Fancies” at the National Art Museum of Sport at Madison Square Garden, NY; the annual Outta Sight Kite Flight in Charlotte, NC; Bill Jones on the founding of the Ohio Society for the Elevation of Kites; the 3rd annual Nashville Kite Flight, TN; the Deer Park Kite Festival in Houston, and Charles Locklin on the 49th annual Kite Tournament in Austin, TX; Douglas Underwood on making snow goose kites at Whitman College, Jack Van Gilder on a kite transaction in Seattle and on the Washington Kitefliers Association exhibition at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center, and Dave Checkley on attempts at Edmonds Community College to make the world’s largest kite, WA; R.E. Ted Padman on the Come Out 77 Festival in the Parklands, Australia; Ken Lewis, “Mr. Kite” of Canada; the development of the British Kite Flyers Association and the Essex Kite Group; Kenji Hoffman’s models of Yajima ship kites, Japan; Logan Fow’s “Kiwi Ramblings” from the Waikato Chapter, New Zealand; Flying With the Old Pro: Bob Ingraham on kite tails; Kid’s Corner: Margaret Greger’s Dutch Kite.
Cover Photo:
The scene is last November’s flight in Japan of 1585 kites from one line, a new world record (see special section beginning on page 17).
An historic moment is combined with a technical feat. Note details of the method, using doubled line threaded on either side of the kites’ spines, undoubtedly for balance. We assume weight of line was not critical . Photographs on cover and page 17 courtesy Takeshi Nishibayashi .
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