Making Power Kites

Where To Find The Info You Need

You have to be pretty keen to consider making power kites or traction kites from scratch. It's a world away from a simple 2 stick diamond. But if you really want to have a go, I've compiled a list of books which include plans and construction details for various parafoil kites.

Title	Soft Kites And Windsocks
Author(s)	Jim Rowlands
Publisher	St. Martins Press, New-York 1992
Binding	Paperback
ISBN Number(s)	ISBN 0-312-08966-X

Plenty of good info on rigging and sewing foil kites. Apparently the numbers of parts are often wrong. Double check for errors before cutting!

Title	Making and Flying Stunt Kites and One-liners
Author(s)	Wolfgang Schimmelpfenning
Publisher	Sterling, July 1997
Binding	Paperback
ISBN Number(s)	0806908718,978-0806908717

80 pages, hardcover also available. For those interested in making traction kites, it does cover a few relevant kite designs. Kite builders generally like this book.

Title	Stunt Kites II
Author(s)	Servaas van der Horst and Nop Velthuizen
Publisher	The Netherlands, THOTH Publishers Rev Edition May 1995
ISBN Number(s)	9068680854,978-9068680850

An errata is available for the first edition. Contains plans for a number of foils. If you can find a copy of Stunt Kites I (ISBN 90-6868-052-8), it contains plans for the Speedfoil, which is like the original Flexifoil.

Title	Leistungsstarke Lenkdrachen zum Nachbauen
Author(s)	Peter Rieleit
Publisher	Ravensburger Verlag, 1993
Binding	Paperback?
ISBN Number(s)	3-473-42286-X

In German, 96 pages. Contains plans for three stunt parafoils, amongst other types. The title in English means 'Efficient Stunt Kites to Build'.

Hope you find something useful here for your efforts at power or traction kites!

Last updated: 10 Dec 2007