KiteJan

Under Construction.......

I wanted a larger kite to use in the buggy for light wind days, as at the time my largest kite was the C-Quad 3.2, but didn't have the money to purchase one. As I had quite a few meters of ripstop fabric lying around I decided to have a go at the NasaWing kites as they have a reputation of a) being a good (cheap) buggy engine kite and b) easy to construct. So after starting sewing in March 2005 in June 2005 it was ready for it's first flight (although I still need to finalize the bridles).

The Nasa design is simple: a single skin of fabric with reinforcement lines stitched in the seams, getting it's distinctive shape via the bridle lines & wind on the sail. The single skin (like the C-Quad) does make it lighter and of course much cheaper and easier to make.

Made: June 2005

Details

Good Things

• Cheap!
• Flies in low wind due to it's single skin construction.
• er, Cheap.

Bad Things

• Very poor upwind performance.
• Limited wind window.
• Slow movement.
• Tendancy to fly backwards.
• And.... would I trust it to hold my weight?

Final Thoughts

I had intended this to be the large low wind buggy engine, but as the project progressed I realized that heart wasn't really in it - I found working with this size kite in my dinning room just too difficult and due to mis-estimating the fabric a couple of times I ended up with a sail pattern that is, er, patchy. Since I have just bought a Flexifoil Bullet 5.5 (which wasn't intended - just the right deal turned up at the right time. Honest.) I can't see using the NasaWing as my lightwind buggy engine as both the Bullet and the Nasa are more or less the same size. Also I don't know if I would trust the bridles to supporting my weight whilst in a stronger wind! Not a criticism of the Nasa design, more of my building skills.

However this is actually quite a nice kite to static fly as it doesn't require much in terms of wind and looks impressive.