Thursday, July 4, 2013

2013 crosswind kites

Well, a year has passed, and my focus has shifted to making kites that can survive crashes.  I've built 4 wings out of EPP foam, one of 2-foot wingspan, two of 3-foot and one of 4-foot.  I've found that the 2 foot span works well in 15-25 knots of wind, the 3 footers in 10-20 knots and the 4-footer in 5-10 knots.

I've also been trying different construction techniques.  I started with spray glue, strapping tape and packaging tape over the EPP foam cores, since this is the established approach for RC combat or slope planes.  But the result is incredibly ugly, with wrinkles all over the wing because the tape doesn't stick well to the foam, despite the use of 3M #77 spray glue.  I then tried contact cement and some of the Japanese paper that I'd used on my wooden-framed planes.  The result varied beautiful, but somewhat heavy, to a little wrinkly and pretty light.  On the 4-foot, light-wind wing, I tried clear mylar plastic film attached with contact cement directly to the foam.

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