Kite Personalities - Stan Swanson

Born into a military family, Stan Swanson spent his elementary and high school years on the move, including a happy four years in Paris . He took an economics degree at the University of Washington in Seattle , then survived hard times in the Pacific Northwest by managing and promoting music groups. Windsocks he created as Christmas presents led him directly into kite making, and an exceptionally lifelike ten-foot albatross bird kite he designed proved an instant hit. When stores asked to handle his kites, he was launched on a career. A condor design made the catalogue of the premier mail order kite business, Into the Wind, orders rolled in, and Swanson was forced to go into production. “That kite just about killed me,” he says. Later when he sold 1,500 of his elephant kites, Swanson expanded by hiring sewing help.

Meanwhile, he made and flew showy figure kites at festivals and found himself being invited to workshops and kite celebrations as far afield as Thailand and Europe , making an international circle of kite friends and gaining a certain pleasurable fame. “And,” he says, “when you make unique kites, you can trade with anyone and build up a good collection, which I've done.” Three-dimensional inflatables added to his reputation. “Inflatables are spectacular in the air, don't break because they have no spars, and are very portable—you can put one in a stuff bag. But it can be hard to get a really big one to fly. There's the problem of sheer mass.”

Swanson has made a number of parafoil kites using the patterns of deceased friend, Doug Hagaman. Beautiful fliers, several have been used by the University of Colorado ’s professor Ben Balsley, as platforms for environmental study and high altitude flight.

Using a shipbuilder's device to project a two-dimensional drawing into three dimensions , Swanson embarked on the construction of a series of whale kites, beginning with a 25-foot orca and concluding with a gargantuan 110-foot blue whale. For the latter, materials alone cost upwards of $1,000 at the time. Why make kites? Swanson says: “It's the satisfaction of creation. That's what I get out of it. There's no thrill like taking a new kite out on a field, putting it up and seeing it fly.”

Adapted from an article in 1991 Kite Pin Invitational, a Drachen Foundation publication (1995)