Diamond Kites

Ever Reliable And Iconic!

Diamond kites have been around for a long time. Centuries in fact! Why do they continue to be popular? If you have ever slapped one together and successfully flown it in light or moderate breezes then it's obvious. With a long enough tail, it doesn't take a lot of skill to make a Diamond that flies reasonably well. Hence the success rate is pretty high!

Kite shops have had no trouble selling nicely constructed and decorated kites in the Diamond shape for decades. People are just drawn to the familiar...

The simplest kind of Diamond is just a set of 2 crossed sticks of equal length, attached to a diamond shaped sail. With the crossing point set at 25% down from the nose, the kite does not even require a bridle. The flying line can simply be attached directly to where the sticks cross. In fact, this is exactly how our MBK Simple Diamond is made.

We've been to a few kite festivals over the years and taken plenty of photos. However, festival fliers tend to avoid the Diamond since it is so 'been there done that'! Never mind, I did manage to spot 3 examples from the 100s of images we have, which are displayed below.

Would you like to have a go at actually making a simple tail-less Diamond that flies well? Just check out these PDF eBooks on the 1-skewer series, 2-skewer series and dowel series of MBK kites. The Diamond is number 2 in all three series.

Diamond Kites We Have Seen At Festivals

Here's 3 photos of Diamonds, all of which feature streamer tails. That's an indication of how popular this quick-and-easy style of tail has become! The classic line-and-bows type of tail is not often seen nowadays. Except perhaps in children's books and on T.V. shows!

This yellow Diamond really sums up the modern role of the diamond shape kite. Fun fun fun! A simple, fool-proof kite for the young or young-at-heart. If I remember correctly, this one was actually flying with all the other kites on the Registered Kite-fliers side of the jetty.

Most Diamonds at the Festival tend to be smaller and flown from the public-flying area. The smiley-face idea is often used on simple flat kites, to good effect.

Streamers form the tail. There's no simpler way, apart from using just one longer streamer.

This black colored Diamond was easily spotted against the blue sky. In fact, I think black kites always photograph well, in a variety of weather conditions.

Black stands out so well against brilliant light sky blue, or white clouds or anything in between it seems. Plus a totally black kite just projects a different image to anything more colorful. More masculine perhaps, not to mention appealing to an older age group.

The streamer tails are colored though. Wouldn't it be a bit boring if they were all black...

Any fairly simple flat kite design lends itself to being arranged in an arch. Here's an impressive example of small Diamond kites all arranged along a long line. It must have been at least 30, maybe 50 meters long. This arch was self-launching, so from time to time the kites just lay there on the dunes when the wind died down.

See if you can spot the far end of the arch in the photo. Also, there's some kite shadows on the sand. As usual, every little Diamond has a streamer tail.

The MBK Diamond Kites

Now for the 4 MBK Diamond kites. These are all made from very cheap and widely available materials. Instructions and plans for making all 4 may be found in the Kite Making group of links up there on the left.

A lot of people have shied away from making my Skewer kites due to their complexity and need for gluing. Hence I did a small series of ultra-basic kites, including this Simple Diamond.

The spars are about 1 meter (1.3 feet) long. No bridle, and no gluing! In light winds, it can be flown on 20 pound line, but we usually use 50 pound line just to be safe.

In keeping with absolute simplicity, the tail is just a single ribbon of the same plastic used to make the sail.

This 1-Skewer Diamond looks a bit worse for wear in the photo, with some bits missing near the nose. Diamonds just keep on flying though. Each spar is a 29 cm (1 foot) bamboo BBQ skewer.

The original was made from clear freezer-bag plastic, which made it almost impossible to see against a grey sky. It's a different story when back-lit by the setting sun though...

With a long tail, this little kite has a surprisingly good wind range. See how we have made the tail from several loops of plastic, cut from bags. Each loop is knotted to the next one, making something slightly more interesting than a simple ribbon.

We fly this kite on 50 meters (150 feet) of 20 pound line. It doesn't need that strength, but we also fly our 2-skewer kites on the same line....

The 2-Skewer Diamond is, as the name suggests, exactly twice as tall as the 1-Skewer design. This gives it 4 times the sail area with not much more than double the weight. Hence, it's pretty good in light winds.

The kite pictured has 2-ply plastic which makes it a little heavier, but it still flies great. With no bow or dihedral, this kite tends to bob around a lot, particularly in rough air.

We did have an unusually sedate flight with it once, when a very smooth, cool air-stream flowed across the local reserve where we were flying.

The big Daddy of MBK Diamond kites. This one was designed from the start to be tail-less. In fact, it is loosely based in the famous tail-less Eddy kite. I can't help thinking it looks a little strange just sitting there in the air. We are so conditioned to seeing the Diamond shape with a tail.

The Dowel Diamond is a reliable flier in light and moderate breezes. Like most Diamonds, the flying line angles are modest, but it climbs easily to 400 feet if you let enough line out.

Size? It's about twice as tall as the 2-Skewer Diamond, so that's about 4 times the sail area. Compared to the 1-Skewer Diamond, the Dowel Diamond has about 16 times as much sail area!

That's about it for this page on Diamond Kites. Hope you enjoyed the pics and the info!

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Last updated: 30 Jan 2010