By Leslie Hunt
FIG. 27.
FRAME FOR BALLOON KITE
(Printable Diagrams)
Prepare a frame as for the two-stick kite, using a 26-inch stick for the spine and a 17-inch stick for the cross. The sticks should be about 1/4 inch wide. Slit the ends making the slit wide enough to accommodate a No. 18 wire. Prepare another cross stick 12 inches long and 1/4 inch wide and glue and lash it at right angles to the foot of the spine. The upper cross should be fixed at about 8 inches from the top of the spine.
Leaving about a foot of wire free, take a turn around the lower cross stick about 4 inches from the spine, run to the slit in the upper cross and thence to the slit at the top of the spine. Lay the incomplete frame on a large sheet of paper and shape the wire to conform to the half outline of a balloon.
When satisfactory, mark the position of the curve and sticks with a pencil, turn the frame over and fit the sticks to the mark and shape the wire on this side to fit the curve drawn from the wire of the other side. Let the wire extend about a foot beyond the lower cross stick and snip off.
Wrap the ends and paper the kite in the usual manner. Some kite makers like a balloon of a little different shape. Plan your own balloon, and attach the bridle from your knowledge of the other kites. The whole outline is shaped with wire, and trough-shaped reinforcements as described in the introduction are used where needed.
Draw the ends of the wire together and fasten to a stick, about 5 inches apart. A stick 8 inches long run between the wires about 4 inches above this last stick makes the outline for the basket. Paper the basket in fancy colors.
Cut about a dozen sticks 3/16 of an inch wide and 6 inches long. Small twigs may be used. Make a ladder using the short sticks for steps and two stocking strings for the sides. Place the steps about 6 inches apart, tying fast to the sides with twine. The ladder may end in several feet of knotted string.
The step part should be about 6 feet long. Use more sticks if necessary. Attach the ladder for a tail by tying to the lower corners of the basket.
FIG. 28.
METHOD OF MAKING THE LADDER FOR THE TAIL OF THE
BALLOON KITE
Roll the sticks in tissue paper, leaving the ends full. This offers much more air resistance.
The bridle is made as described in the Two-Stick Kite, the towing point falling about 5 inches below the top of the kite and 15 inches from its surface.
The projecting ends of the lower cross stick may carry small flags or parachutes.
The Balloon made from the above specifications weighed, without flags, parachutes, or tail, .67 ounces per square foot.
It proved a good flier.
For directions for making parachutes, see Chapter VI.
Ten plane-surface kites have been described in detail. If four or five of these have been made with some degree of success, you may now proceed to the next chapter on Tailless Kites and be equally successful.
