Inside The MBK Kite Designs

The Almost-Complete Story!

A big portion of this website is the collection of kite designs that form the 1-Skewer, 2-Skewer and Dowel series. Besides detailed How To... instructions, there are Plans for each as well as researched background information on the 8 specific types of kites. Oh, and let's not forget all the Flying Blog posts that describe our actual outings with all these kites!

To be honest, the thought of making, flying and documenting all these kites initially seemed absurd. That was because of all the time involved. It just didn't seem worth it. Too much work for too little website content! However, once the first few designs were built and flown, I realized it was very satisfying and fun, and couldn't stop! Of course, this kind of info is also very useful to other people, which could only be a good thing for the future of the website. Indeed, the How To Make A Kite page is visited more often than any other page except the Home Page. The simple yet systematic approach to it all is appreciated by visitors too, I'm sure. A bit of kite-flying passion mixed in helps to make it an easier read too!

Are you getting the feeling this is not quite what you expected? For a wealth of general information about specific kite designs of many popular types, have a careful look over there on the left. It's all there, whether Chinese kites, Box kites or whatever. Types of Kites focuses specifically on the 8 types I have actually made in each MBK series. Also, the Paper Kites link is a sort of catch-all for many other single-line kite designs not covered elsewhere on this site.

If you really do want to catch a glimpse of how the three MBK series of kites came to be, read on! This is basically just a collection of notes and comments, some very general and others quite specific. So you don't have to wade through anything uninteresting, I have tried to organize it all into quite a number of small sections. Just scroll down until a section title appears mildly interesting! It's an enormous page, sorry about that... I'll get around to splitting it out into smaller pages eventually!

Kite Design Goals

The original concept was to create versions of a number of popular kite designs, all with the same materials. As much as possible, I also hoped to standardize the construction methods. Hence, once a person made one kite, they would be in a position to make another one much quicker and easier. Some of the required materials would already be at hand, and some new skills gained from the first attempt. For example, applying the spar cap tapes gets faster and more accurate with practice. A few of the standard knots get memorized, and so on.

All the kite designs were intended to be...

• fast to make
• good/great performers
• extremely cheap
• made from widely available materials

Those 1st 2 points aren't always easy to achieve together! Initially, the emphasis was on speed but as time goes on I'm tending to go for performance without increasing build time too much.

My personal preference is for single-liners, so that is the main common thread through all the kite designs. All except the Sleds are also flat kites, with bow or dihedral applied for extra stability. Even the Deltas rely on bow or dihedral, unlike the store-bought Deltas.

Kite Theory Void

To sum it up, I have managed to get away with a minimum of calculations and theory. Basing my kite designs on existing proven ones has been the main reason they fly well! I do have a reasonable knowledge of basic aerodynamics, but a whole lot can also be learnt from the experience of making, testing and fine-tuning many kites of various kinds.

In fact, this experience has brought home to me the fact that kite flight is extremely complex. To fully explain it in terms of numbers and equations is much more involved than for, say, a simple glider. A kite is tethered, and the flying line introduces a number of complications if you want to simulate the kite's flight perfectly. It has stretch, weight and drag of its own that affects the kite's flight path. Hey - wake up! Back to less technical stuff now...

A Tale Of 3 Series

Perhaps it's a personality thing, but I decided to start small. It would be quick and cheap, in case any kites had to be re-made and refined. It wasn't long before I did end up with multiple kites of the same type, while trying to improve the kite designs in various ways.

It was easy to imagine a Sled, Diamond and Delta constructed from bamboo skewers. Plus these were very popular kite designs, so that's where I started. Bamboo is a traditional spar material, and BBQ skewers made this material available in a very convenient form! No painstaking bamboo-splitting for me, or my visitors, thank you very much. I take my hat off to the more expert kite-makers, who craft amazing flying creations from thin slivers of bamboo and special types of paper! Not to mention the sheer artistry that goes into many traditional kites.

The 1-Skewer Series

After some research, it was clear that a number of other single-liners had a significant following in the West. The West, after all, is where most of my website traffic comes from. The list changed once or twice, and the Delta ended up near the end of the series. Eventually the list ended up as follows:

1. Sled
2. Diamond
3. Barn Door
4. Sode
5. Rokkaku
6. Delta
7. Roller
8. Dopero

Any reason for the order of these kite designs? Sure, they are supposed to get more challenging to build as you move down the list. Mind you, some people are so impressed by the reports of the Doperos' performance that they go straight for it! Some of these types are not nearly so well known as the diamond but I wanted to give the visitor a decent choice. There would be the chance to 'try something different' if desired. Plus of course, I had the fun of designing and testing them all!

The 2-Skewer Series

Soon it was clear that another series of kite designs was possible, with all the kites doubled in spar length. Those bamboo skewers were so strong, surely doubling the length would not cause any problems! In a way, this was a bit of a gamble since it involved some rather fiddly gluing to join the skewers together. Despite this, there are some very keen 2-Skewer kite fans out there!

There are 3 real advantages for those who are willing to put up with the extra gluing...

• Superb low-wind performance if single-ply plastic used.
• More tolerant of inaccuracies in construction, due to the doubling of size.
• Still small enough to be tossed on the seat of a car or in the boot (trunk).

The Dowel Series

It did occur to me that the skewer concept could be stretched even further. However, to do a good job and make kites with a decent wind range would require a lot of extra complexity with doubled spar widths and so on. Some of the kite designs would work out well as extremely light-wind kites, with three skewers end to end for each spar. A Dopero like this might eventually happen, I just can't get it out of my head!

So, it was time to go with a different spar material. The obvious choice was to use wooden dowels, which were available in long lengths and still reasonably cheap and widely available.

After tossing various ideas around, the most logical one was to double the spar lengths yet again. Hence, most of the kite designs would now be 1.2 meters in span. First came 30cm skewer spars, then 60cm 2-skewer spars and now 120cm lengths of dowel. Kites of this size are too big to easily transport, so I resolved to make all the kite designs in the Dowel series roll up like a Sled! Also, as an additional challenge, I resolved to make sure every single kite would fly without a tail.

So, to summarize, all the Dowel kites (except Sled!) have the following features...

• Standard bowed spar(s), using a toggled bow line.
• Corner Strap sail attachment method and a standard spar attachment method, so the kite can roll up like a Sled for transport.
• No tail, unless desired for decoration.
• Light to moderate (at least) wind range.

From my point of view, all this was a fun design exercise! Not to mention the sheer enjoyment of test flying the various new kite designs. At this writing, the Delta is not done, and this will be a special challenge to get it right!

Which Series Is Right For You?

The MBK 1-Skewer Kites...

• Quickest and easiest to build, generally. Some children will be able to build them, with supervision.
• A good choice for some kite-workshops perhaps, particularly if quick-drying glue is used.
• OK for 'never made a kite before' adults.
• Fun for the very smallest kite-fliers to enjoy. Our Aren has been flying the Diamond since the age of 2 years!
• Due to the very small size, performance and even stability can be disappointing if too much weight is added. Just follow the instructions to the letter.

The MBK 2-Skewer Kites...

• More of a 'builders kite' with the extra gluing involved.
• Zero setup time, since they are still small enough to throw onto a car seat or in the boot (trunk) of the car.
• Amazing light wind performance will delight adults, if the sail is made with single-ply plastic.
• In the lightest wind conditions, most kids down to 3 yrs would still be able to enjoy flying one of these.
• Will easily reach the legal altitude limit, on 20 pound polyester or nylon line. (400ft Australia, 500 ft U.S., 150m elsewhere)

The MBK Dowel Kites...

• Mainly for adults to fly, although a young teenager could probably cope in moderate wind conditions.
• The only gluing involved is on knots, so very little waiting around during construction.
• The straps for sail and spar attachment add a little construction time, but hey - it's so easy to carry around and store when finished!
• No cumbersome tails blowing around while you are trying to setup and launch..
• Satisfyingly impressive size compared to the skewer kites!
• Satisfyingly firm pull on the line too. Actually, you need to be careful. A light glove on your flying hand is recommended.

Kite Construction Specifics

Sail Material

With each series, the sail area goes up by factor of 4, roughly. So, the 2 Skewer designs have 4 times the area of the equivalent 1-Skewer designs. The Dowel kite designs have 4 times the area of the equivalent 2-Skewer designs. That means the Dowel kites have no less than 16 times as much sail area than the puny single-skewer versions!

The 1-Skewer sails were mostly freezer-bag plastic. In future they will probably be a standard single-ply plastic so they are easier to photograph. There might be a very small weight penalty for this, but too bad. These kite designs will still be fine little fliers.

The 2-Skewer sails started out as multi-ply Garden Bag plastic, but I switched to single-ply for the Roller and Dopero. Those 2 kites have spectacular light-wind performance. Eventually, all the others will use single-ply too, although the Rok does very well already, thanks to its larger area. With single-ply plastic, it could well be the best light-wind kite of the lot.

People talk about problems with single-ply plastic stretching, but edging with sticky tape seems to keep the sail in good condition for quite a while. If you never go out on windy days, and avoid launching from the ground, any of these kite sails will last you a long long time.

Sail Edging

Evident from early on has been the effectiveness of sticky tape edging as a sail edge protector. The tape adheres permanently to the plastic and strongly resists stretching. I've found the main threat to the sail is bridle lines pulling around the edges during ground handling. The weight of plain old office sticky tape adds up, so an appropriate width needs to be used. Just try flying a 1-skewer Diamond with a full width of sticky tape around the edges... The appropriate scaling is as follows:

• 1/4 width for 1-Skewer designs
• 1/2 width for 2-Skewer designs
• full width for Dowel designs

Spar Caps

The electrical insulation tape spar caps have worked well from day one. It's great how these mold around spars and onto the sail plastic. These can eventually loosen off due to hot/cold temperatures and general abuse on the flying field but will usually last long enough to get many long flights.

When a tape does loosen off, it's easy to trim the old one back to the sail plastic, then add a new tape over the old one. Yes, a tiny bit of extra weight there, but the kite is back in the air again. If the sail plastic is multi-ply, is might be robust enough to peel off the old tape completely without too much damage to the sail.

Glue

White wood glue, called Aquadhere in Australia, has been satisfactory for all gluing. This stuff is quite cheap, particularly if you buy it in the larger sizes to use for other purposes besides making MBK kites. Although you need to wait for it to dry, applying a bit of glue to where bamboo spars cross is much quicker and easier than binding them with thread. These glue-only joins have never failed in the air with finished kite designs. The 2-Skewer Dopero did have a problem once, but then it needed extra reinforcement! After that design change, the glue held.

Glue adds a significant amount of weight to the 1-Skewer kite designs, so the glued reinforcers are quite short. Exactly how short was discovered by trial and error during the making of the 2-Skewer series. Hence some of the published 1-Skewer designs are still a bit heavier than they need to be.

Light weight and / or fast-drying glues are available if you are willing to pay more!

Bridles

The attachment of bridle lines to spars and to flying line changed quite a lot over a year or 2. Several different knots were tried. At one stage I even had the 1-Skewer kites attached to the flying line with a paper clip, which definitely added weight. Pity, since it's even easier to attach and remove than a Lark's Head knot!

Finally, here's how the knots panned out:

• Bridle-to-spar: Single-wrap Slip Knot, pulled up against a small simple loop knot in the end of the line
• Sliding knots: Prusik Knot
• End-of-bridle: Double Overhand Loop Knot
• End-of-flying-line: Figure-eight Loop Knot, formed into a Lark's Head for attachment to the bridle

Of course, the bigger the kite, the more important it is to use the correct knots since strength margins tend to be smaller. For example, 20 pound line is over-kill for the 1-Skewer kites. The kite would break before the line or bridle did!

Dihedral and Bow

With the 1-Skewer series, I experimented with both these approaches. Dihedral was a bit hit-and-miss if the bamboo was just bent to the required amount. Complete with cracking noises! If you overdo it, you need to add a little reinforcer plus some glue to get the stiffness back. That adds a lot of weight on such a small kite. Adding a bow line to a single bamboo skewer is quite difficult, particularly for a first-time builder. The exception is the Delta, since the cross spar overhangs the leading-edge spars and makes it more convenient to tie off a bow line. Most likely, I will end up going with pre-bent skewers, using the steam from an electric kettle, in the final versions. Dihedral with no extra weight. Perfect.

The 2-Skewer series kite designs are a natural fit for the dihedral approach, since the skewers have to be joined and reinforced anyway. By trial and error, I found the ideal lengths for the reinforcers. Having 4 times the sail area compared to the 1-Skewer designs, the extra weight at the dihedral joins mattered far less. Also, the spars' weight is a far smaller proportion of the total weight, compared to the 1-Skewer kites.

Dowel series kites are a natural fit for putting some bow into the horizontal spar. Using dihedral would just be a lot of unnecessary work, and also add unnecessary weight. For the utmost simplicity in setting up, I went with a toggled bow-line and enough bow to keep the kite stable over a decent wind range. Hence, that's at the expense of a tiny amount of light-wind performance. Creating the perfect bowed cross spar is a bit of an exercise, so it gets a whole web-page to itself in the instructions! Balance, the right amount of curvature and even curvature on both sides can be achieved with a bit of work. An interesting thought occurred to me as I wrote this....With a number of Dowel kites made, it should be possible to share a single lovingly-crafted bowed spar among all the kites!

Weight Balancing

This isn't usually a major concern, but it's nice to know that the left and right sides of your kite are perfectly balanced. It can make a small difference at the lower end of the wind range. Small bits of sticky tape attached to one wing tip can do the trick for the 1-Skewer kites. For the 2-Skewer kites, extra insulation tape can be added to one of the spar caps without changing the appearance of the kite. The dowel spars are a bit heavy to start with, compared to other spar materials, so the sensible thing is to remove wood with a file, to achieve weight balance. This avoids adding even more weight.

Flying Line

It's worth getting decent Polyester or Nylon kite line from a kite shop, since one line can be made up and shared amongst a lot of kites. We use 20 pound twisted Dacron for the 1 and 2 skewer kites, while 50 pound braided Dacron suits the Dowel kites nicely. In the early days, I played around with very light mono-filament for the 1-Skewer kites. Not recommended! It twists and tangles like you would not believe.

Beyond The 3 Series

There will be more kites after the Dowel series is completed. They will all have full instructions, plans and so on. However, this information will only be available as PDF eBooks for a small fee. Here's a taste of what is to come...

• Special strong-wind versions of most of the MBK kites in the 3 series. Nothing except the threat of lightning will stop you getting out for a fly!
• One-off specials, inspired by a kite in the series. For example, that 3-Skewer Dopero I hinted at earlier! Jet black plastic. Beautiful.
• Experiments in Kite Aerial Photography, using very large kites scaled up from the Dowel series.
• Other stuff I only have time to dream about for now!

Final Thoughts

Initially I was just concerned with the 'simpler and quicker way', so as not to frustrate the builder. However, after the 1st series of kite designs was complete it became clear that I was adding some unnecessary weight in a few of the 1-Skewer kites. Some even didn't have a full skewer length wing span. Hence I later went back and re-did the first few kites. Eventually they will all have improved light-wind performance, one way or another.

The whole collection of kites is a work in progress. The time from when the first version of the first 1-skewer kite was constructed, to when I stop making any changes to any kite in the series might stretch to several years! The end result should be a body of work that will provide great value and a lot of enjoyment to people for decades to come. Decades? Yep! Somehow, there are always people who just want to 'make a kite'. Quick, cheap and simple. Some aspects of the single-line kiting scene have not changed since since the 1940s, and that stasis will persist well into the coming century. I'm sure of it!

Interestingly, there is another group of people who relish a challenge and get a kick out of building increasingly complex kites. These are the ones who ask me for instructions to do a Chinese Dragon Kite or a Cody War Kite, for example!

Hope you've managed to glean something from my ramblings on the MBK kite designs!

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Last updated: 1 Sep 2009