"Making Indoor Kites"

For Weatherproof Flying!

Tow Them Up at Walking Pace...

Hi! I'm Tim Parish, a 60+ "kite nut" who has researched many designs over the years—and made quite a few kites of my own, of course.

It's been a lot of fun making indoor kites! These designs have all been tested and refined so that you too can have plenty of enjoyment and success.

Even a small house provides enough space to fly these kites by walking around in circles. Or you can tow them along on winding journeys from room to room :-)

You can make some fine-looking craft by using colored permanent markers on the sail plastic. See those in-flight shots of them all, down below. Of course, you could deviate from my simple graphics and do your own amazing art instead!

Eight Classic Designs...
(Using Just Plastic, Paper, and Sticky Tape)

Indoor Sled

Indoor Diamond

Indoor Rokkaku

Indoor Delta

Indoor Canard

Indoor A-Frame

Indoor Bird

Indoor Genki

The Sled is the quickest and easiest. It will soar up in a stable fashion just as soon as it pops open during launch. This kite will also tolerate flying outdoors in calm-to-light conditions. That is, up to about 11 kph (7 mph) of wind speed.

The Bird is perhaps the most visually attractive design and is a smooth stable flyer indoors.

The Genki is the most challenging both to make and to fly. But if you get it right, this kite is a super-steep flyer! Watch it skim along, trying to flatten itself against the ceiling.

All these kites fly on a length of polyester sewing thread. The lighter the better.

Why Fly Indoor Kites?

They're Weather-Proof!

Now isn't that the whole point of flying indoors? Well, it has to be a big part of the attraction, at least. Conventional kite-flying is so constrained by the weather. But it's never a problem indoors...

Fly whenever you feel like it!

The Printable Advantage

There are two types of line graphics that can be printed from the e-book like any other pages:

The sail templates. By printing off and fitting together four sheets of paper, you have a template for tracing out the sail on plastic sheet. This approach ensures great accuracy and symmetry.
The spar shapes. By printing off the shapes you get a great head-start on producing an accurate frame for the kite you've selected.

And the best thing? No fiddly measuring! :-) You can't go wrong.

By the way, the printed shapes are identical whether you are using A4 or Letter size paper.

DIY satisfaction

In this world of retail consumerism, it's so satisfying to fly something you made yourself. Even if it takes a bit of e-book help.

Cheap materials

Hey, it has to be the most mundane materials list for kite-making ever! Whatever country you're in, it can't be too hard to find copier paper, light plastic bags, and sticky tape.

Flying line should be on hand too, sitting in a cupboard somewhere. Sewing thread is all you need!

You can experiment with alternative spar and sail materials. However, the approach presented in this e-book means that you can get cracking almost immediately, with materials that you almost certainly already have.

It's fun!

To take the flying of these kites to another level, seek out large indoor spaces :-) Three times the length of thread equals three times the fun, I'd say.

Or how's this possibility for flying even higher—outdoors on a dead-calm moonlit night! Just walking along with a miniature flying machine following your every change in direction.