Articles

  • Commentary on French Kite Patents
    The first-ever patent for a kite was issued in France on Sept. 27, 1800 to the Englishman George (Georges in French patent use) Pocock for one or more diamond-shaped kites designed to pull a carriage with four people. It was the 3,116th patent issued in France and was 66 years before the first American kite patent was issued, 82 years in Germany and 55 years in England. Also, it was 54 years before the next patent for a kite was issued in France.
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  • An Unexpected Underwater Kite
    The use of kites in scientific research is a recurring theme, so it came as no surprise that a 1909 Scientific American article on sounding apparatus included a box kite in its description. But a look at the title of the article provided a surprise. “Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus : Some Recent Improvements,” it read.
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  • Werner Schmidt Leads the Way: Rediscovering the Kites of Lindenberg
    Werner Schmidt’s apotheosis came in l984 when he viewed a strange kite in a technology museum in Munich. It was a Grund Boxkite. “I still remember the moment I first saw it,” he says. “That’s how impressed I was.”
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  • ‘Jack in-the-box’ Draws Raves: Anke Sauer Invents Ingenious Kite; A Question: Is It Unique, a Generic?
    Connoisseurs agree Anke Sauer’s “Jack-in-the-box” foldup kite is one of the most exciting new kites of the last few years, but as to its generic category there is no consensus as yet.
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  • Laddermill-sailing, Ship propulsion by wind energy independent from the wind direction!
    Abstract: The use of large kites in ship propulsion has been getting a growing attention because of the urgent need to reduce the CO2 production and thus stop the use of fossil fuels. A novel application of ship propulsion by kites is proposed based on a Laddermill apparatus mounted on a ship. Such an apparatus consist of a winch, an electric motor/generator, a kite system (including launch and retrieval) and controlling electronics.
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  • Harald Prinzler
    An industrial electronics engineer from Schlangen, Germany, Harald Prinzler took up KAP in the early 1990s and soon became a convert to Flow Forms as aerial platforms. He invented a variation of the Flow Form and has shared it worldwide via his Web site. Prinzler does not use direction control for his camera rig, preferring to use his imagination in pointing the camera. He says he likes it that way----more exciting
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  • Andrea Casalboni
    After almost 20 years of KAP and more than 6,000 images taken during that period, Andrea Casalboni, of Ravenna, Italy, remains partially unreconstructed. He uses digital for big format prints, but rejects the help of radio-controlled video in choosing when to shoot because he likes to imagine the shot he is making. “I have more feel for the subject that way,” he says. “My experience allows me to put the camera on the right point, while not disturbing the subject.
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  • Select Bibliography
    The Aerial Eye, an international journal for kite aerial photographers, published by the American Kitefliers Association l994-99. Useful science and art. All 18 issues, including invaluable index, are available on compact disk for $30 postpaid anywhere in the world. Contact Brooks Leffler at Post Office Box 34, Pacific Grove, CA 93050. “Under the editorship of Leffler, this magazine was so good,” comments expert Peter Bults, “it appears to have drained the worldwide KAP user community of ideas in its day and run out of material.”
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  • James and Susan Aber
    Both of them earth science teachers at a state university in Kansas, James and Susan Aber are a husband-wife team that uses kite aerial photography for diverse educational, scientific, commercial, and esthetic purposes throughout the U.S. and in several countries of northern Europe. Devoted KAPers since 1996, the two have been using only high-resolution digital cameras since 2005. Their kites are large Rokkakus and Flow Forms.
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  • A KAP Timeline: Aerial Photography in the Early Days
    1858. Gaspard Felix Tournachon (a.k.a. Nadar) takes the first aerial photograph ever, from a balloon 262 feet in the air, over the Bievre Valley, near Paris. The shot is of such poor quality it cannot be reproduced. “A simple positive upon glass, made with detestable materials,” is Nadar’s characterization. But aerial photography is born. 1860. The first genuinely beautiful and sharply focused aerial photograph is taken by James Black from a balloon 1,200 feet above Boston.
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