Kite Personalities - Peter Lynn

Ali Fujino

He makes big beaches smaller.

That's what kite world observers say of Peter Lynn, New Zealand's roving ambassador for kites.

The Peter Lynn aerial circus features big--often huge--kites, unusual kite-associated creations, and traction devices using the pulling power of kites. It's a lesson in the range the sport can encompass.

His kites range from the hundred-foot Octopus to the realistic Manta Ray, from the Tri-D Box with Maori designs from New Zealand's original Polynesian inhabitants to the new Myrtle the Turtle. In addition to being large, they are brightly colored, often whimsical and fly well. Most are inflatables. Lynn could hardly cart all his gear around the world six months of the year unless it packed down easily.

His "line laundry"--flying objects attached to the line of a lifting kite--is unusual. The Centipede, fully articulated and writing realistically in the air, is more than a windsock since it provides substantial lift on its own.

"At many kite festivals, the only space available is on the ground, " says Lynn. Because he saw this opening and also felt that the kite world needs more playthings for children, Lynn came up with the Fugu (Japanese for blowfish), a Bernoulli differential pressure lifting sphere made of upwards of two thousand panels of ripstop nylon that, when tethered and wind-inflated, bounces slowly and rhythmically several yards into the air and then down again. Suitably supervised, children can play underneath the Fugu as it softly bounces, or even romp inside the immense, colorful globe-the record is one hundred twenty-two inside at one time.

Lynn also shrinks the beach when he breaks out his kite-towed sand buggy. A low-slung, three-wheeled vehicle, the buggy when pulled by a kite, often Lynn's soft Peel (named because it looks like an orange peel), reaches speeds in excess of fifty mph. When a buggy is coming fast, the crowd parts at quick-step.

All in all, Lynn puts on quite a show and is the darling of festival organizers from Europe to Asia.

Born and raised in the Christchurch area of New Zealand, Lynn took an engineering degree and then developed a thriving woodworking business he was forced to give up after developing allergies to certain woods. He came to kites professionally in the early 1970s and soon was setting an inventive pace hard to match.

His kite business is owned by Peter and his wife Elwyn. They have nine staff and five children, all of whom helped out. Daughter Kirrilee, sewed the first Fugu as a way of using up shop scraps. It took her two weeks.

While a good business for him, Lynn says that kite making also gives him a lot of personal satisfaction. "There's so much challenge," he says. "I see an endless vista of possibilities for kite designers."

"I myself want to rise above the poppy field," he says. "For this you need new, strong, dynamic ideas."

Ideas he is working on range from a Frog with weighted hind legs so it will hop when inflated to further development of kite traction schemes. His experiments there have embraced the development of a tri-hulled little boat pulled by a kite. Current work focuses on launching the puller kite from the water, instead of land as currently. Lynn has also patented a traction kite that actually becomes smaller in size when the wind increases, thus permitting its use in a greater range of wind conditions.

Because he spends so much time in airports and on planes, Lynn does a lot of writing. His first book was titled, not surprisingly, Buggies, Boats and Peels. Next is Boxes, Bugs and Big Fish; down the road looms a primer on kite ice skating.

A shrewd observer of the international kite scene, Lynn thinks festivals should emphasize kiting that pleases spectators, and not focus on events that showcase individual fliers. "Thus new people will be brought into the sport and it will grow," he says. "More emphasis on spectacular single-line kites is very much in order."

Originally trained in aerodynamics design, Lynn says he's glad he took the kite byway. "Can you imagine my enjoyment," he says, "at going out on the field at a big international festival, like Fano, Denmark, and seeing all the kites I myself designed flying in the sky?"

Note: This article was adapted from a Drachen Foundation website posting. For an update on the many activities of Peter Lynn and his family, click here.