How to Build a Delta Kite

Step-by-Step—Page 1 of 4

The MBK 2-Skewer Delta

This set of instructions on how to build a delta kite assumes you know absolutely nothing about kite making. You might already have some of the simple tools and materials required. Anything you don't have is easily bought. If not exactly what I used, then at least something pretty similar!

Original MBK 2-Skewer Delta

The MBK 2-Skewer Delta Kite is a medium-sized delta 96 cm (38 in.) across and 58 cm (23 in.) tall, with a single fairly short tail.

The horizontal spars are bowed to give extra stability and shorten the amount of tail required. Hence it's a bit different to a store-bought delta with a single spreader.

The 2-Skewer Delta is a very nice light-to-moderate-wind flyer. Take it out when there seems to be hardly enough wind to keep any kite up.

Watch this kite go straight overhead when a thermal comes through. Avoid flying in strong wind however, since this design flaps rapidly in that situation!

Many months later, this design was superseded by a more conventional delta design. But people kept enjoying this page so I decided to leave it up.

On this site, there's more kite-making info than you can poke a stick at :-)

Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?

The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads — printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.

Every kite in every MBK series.

How to Build a Delta Kite
Frame

Have you read the page on kite materials? If you haven't already, do it now to see what's needed for building a  skewer kite.

For this delta, you need to glue skewers together to form the three spars plus spreader:

• Snip the points off six bamboo skewers, then check to see that they are all exactly the same length. Trim some if necessary.
• Put aside another two skewers, leaving the points on for now.
• From another skewer, snip off six lengths of bamboo, each 0.1 SL (3 cm, 1 in.) long.
• Arrange all eight skewers together with the short lengths as in the photo, with some paper underneath to catch excess glue. Tape that paper down to the table.
• Get down to tabletop height and look along the spars, and make sure they are as straight as possible.
• Lay down a thick line of glue all the way down each join, as in the photo.

As mentioned earlier, there's more kite making on this site than you can poke a stick at :-)

Want to know the most convenient way of using it all?

The Big MBK E-book Bundle is a collection of downloads — printable PDF files which provide step-by-step instructions for many kites large and small.

Every kite in every MBK series.

Continue to page 2