First time for the two sets of banners shown together...

The late Delta prepared

The late Delta in flight

Expansible box kite 1996
120 cells, 4 x 30, 164 x 750 cm
after Eiji Ohashi design
Ready to un-roll...

This was a speculative set-up that proved to be almost entirely correct according to the illustrations that we saw subsequently in the Eiji Ohashi book, a 'pdf' copy of which was sent to us from the JKA Office in Tokyo. It would have been flown from the pole though, not with an additional single line.

It was great to have plenty of hands to help...

It did not stay in the air long but proved the concept for us for the time being.

It is quite an extraordinary structure. The steel 'D' rings used have been cleaned and waxed so should not rust further provided we keep them dry. The polythene tubing is looking ok. The cross spar fittings look a bit fragile but none have broken at this stage... Inevitably we have broken plenty of the sticks!

Parafoil 1990 (14 square metres)
George Ham profile

Wind was marginal low down on the Saturday.

The bridle needed re-building and some lines replaced. New connecting rings in stainless steel were fitted and the overall profile was measured, for the record. This was the second flight after the work was completed. (The first was on the previous weekend at Blackheath.) It was not possible to remove the rust marks from the sail that are visible in this image.

Better launch conditions on the Sunday.

Della Porta: Nine squares 1993
each square: 80 x 80 cm
total size: 4.5 x 4.5 metres (5.76 square metres sail area)
tails: 2 x 25 metres

The polythene fittings are quite heavy and need to be carefully organised when fitting the spars.

The tails need careful handling at launch so as not to restrict the movement of the kite. As wind conditions were light we switched to a single loop of tail but we did not succeed with a sustained flight. Further 'fine tuning' of the bridle will be needed!

When we brought this one back from Aarhus many of the spars were broken. We used green race rev spars as fillers to see if that would be 'stronger' and as that proved successful we now have carbon rod fillers for all the longer center spars

Sanjo Rokkaku 1992
Size: 300 x 250 cm

Sanjo Rokkaku 1991
Size: 300 x 250 cm