MBK Kite Plans

The Way To Go If You're In The Know!

Why build from kite plans? Well, if you've made a few kites before, it's just a bit quicker and more convenient than wading through a long list of step-by-step instructions. There's another plus too. It's easier to substitute your own different materials or way of doing things, as you see fit. For example, you might use rip-stop nylon instead of plastic, or doweling for spars to make a much bigger kite.

New to this site? OK, let me explain about '1-skewer designs' and '2-skewer designs'. This simply refers to the basic building block of the kite. 1-skewer designs are no wider than the length of a single bamboo skewer. Similarly, 2-skewer designs are mainly constructed with 2 skewers joined end-to-end. These designs are never more than 2 skewers wide from tip to tip.

Could you do me a small favor at this point? Just take a few seconds to complete a very short survey. Thanks!

Kite Plans For All The Skewer Kites

Eventually. The links below take you to the plans for both the 1 and 2 skewer version of each kite type. Right now, there's just three....

Plans For Sled Kites

Plans For Diamond Kites

Plans For Barn Door Kites

More to come, as the months go by!

You'll see that that my approach is to...

1. present both plans at the top of the page, and
2. follow up with just a brief series of tips and hints to get you started.

All the MBK designs should scale up nicely. For example, if you want to use doweling instead of bamboo skewers. However, this might result in a kite that has a bit more stability than it needs for maximum performance.

For example, the little 1-skewer Dopero has been stretched considerably in the vertical direction. Hence, the ratio of height to width is much more than, say, a big shop-bought Maxi Dopero.

Between the plan and the list of hints, 90% of the kite's construction should be covered. If you're a 'plan builder' then the remaining 10% shouldn't worry you!

Also, every kite plan presented here has a corresponding set of complete instructions in the How To Make... section of this website. This page is quite new, so to begin with, each new 2-skewer design will appear here in the same month I release its complete instructions.

Further Comments

My ultimate goal is to have a large collection of kite-making instructions and plans that have been refined and standardized through lots of building and flying! Small design changes might creep in too, as I experiment and improve the flying characteristics of each kite, so you have a better chance of success.

As far as standardizing things, you might have noticed that the How To Make... pages are well on the way already. However, it's going to get better!

Finally, the kite drawings here are not intended for just printing off and enlarging. The result would be stretched a little in the horizontal or vertical direction. However, if you went ahead and built a kite from such a plan, I'm sure it would fly! Nothing a bit more tail and/or dihedral wouldn't fix, don't you think?

Last updated: 9 Jun 2008