All About Kites

All About Kites

Introduction Few things are as bright and energetic as a sky filled with colorful, dancing kites! Each design is competing for your attention--long- tailed dragons, spinning metallic stars, and favorite cartoon characters. Kites are no longer just simple toys. Modern, aerodynamic materials and engineering techniques make new kite designs bigger, lighter, and stronger and allow them to perform like aerial acrobats.

History of Kites Thousands of years ago, the first toy kites were named after the kite bird, a large, graceful bird with a very wide wingspan. In imitation, many early kites were shaped like birds, but people continually experimented with kite designs. Slowly, kites became increasingly elaborate and took on identifiable characteristics and consistent flight patterns. Kite flying so captured people's imaginations that stories were written about flyers. One famous Chinese legend tells a story about a man who used a kite to attack a fort. Unable to penetrate the walls, he tied himself to a huge kite, flew over the fort's high walls, and frightened the soldiers away.

Some kites have made history. The famous American diplomat and inventor Ben Franklin loved testing ideas. He used a kite to prove his idea that lightning was made of electric current. On a stormy day, he and his son tied a metal key to a kite string and flew their kite high into the storm clouds. Just as he predicted, electricity from the clouds ran down the wet string to the metal key. When he reached toward the key, the electricity jumped from the key and gave him a shock! Warning: Don't try this experiment! When Franklin tried it again, he was hurt badly.

Unusual Uses for Kites Fishing: Fish like to chase things in the water. To reach fish that swim far from shore, some people attach a shiny, baited fishhook to the long tail of a kite. The airborne kite skips the bait through the water so the fish can see it, bite it, and be caught and reeled in. Weather charts: For years, scientists used a specially built box kite to carry delicate weather instruments aloft-to chart and record wind speeds and air temperatures.

Real wind power: Long-distance cargo ships burn large amounts of fuel and contribute to air pollution. One German shipping company is experimenting with special kites to help reduce both problems. The big kite helps to pull the ship so the ship's engines will burn less fuel every day. As they burn less fuel, the amount of air pollution the engines produce will also be reduced.