Kites in chronological order after design year, from 1994 and onwards. 

The kites are grouped in sections of eight.

On smartphone: use finger for scrolling sideways to be able to see all pictures.

–

Details of kites # 1 – 8.

Click  the picture to get a larger picture.

Click the button under the picture to get more information.

The rest of the kites.

Click  the button in left column the get the details of the kites in the section.

9. Salida Sled

10. Fly50

11. Flag

12. Sueño de Barrilete
View details of kites #9 - 1613. ReTurn

14. Confusion (Fat Flat Rok)

15. Red Tail

16. Sake Dako
17. Absolut Kite

18. Nokap

19. Flyn

20. WannaBees
View details of kites #17 - 2421. PentArch

22. Stockholm 1912

23. Coded & Decoded

24. Ikan & Sakana
25. Square Foot

26 BAHCO 10

27. Don't Waste Your Time

28. Money Laundry
View details of kites #25 - 3229. Imposters

30. Block Shot

31. YangTze

32. Butterfly
33. HumbleBee

34. Nyoman Shimmy

35. Roebuck

36. Ronbus
View details of kites #33 - 4037. Svein

38. akka

39. Niëlje

40. Forty³
41. Ririn

42. ThorNado
View details of kites #41 - 48

The fourth SHARK I built (with a few changes from the Blue Wing) I had big problems getting airborne. I built it already in late 90’s (or possibly early 00’s), and over the years I made small changes, tested, failed and then let it rest. After moving into my house in Bali I made again changes on the bridle but didn’t have the wind to try it: it was hanging on my wall ready to go. One evening, just at sunset, I felt the urge to test it and though there only was a small breeze it flew!

The next day was wind better and I could finally see the kite steady high up in the sky.

As quite a long time had passed since I first built it I actually had learned a lot about making kites, and now I wanted to make it again but more simple. But that was not so simple: The crucial part of the kite is the sail that forms the in-sail dihedral; what I call Wipe (it has a wiping shape) and I did not have the drawing for this. However, by chance when I was rearranging the storage I found the template for the Wipe in a suitcase and could get going. Still, that simplification process went on for 2 years…

The result would be Niëlje, see further down.

Having made Ruler of the Sky I wanted to go extreme and see what aspect ratio I could manage. I wanted to try over 10.

This Blue Wing has a width of 4.5m meters and length off 35 cm, making the AR 12.6.

It is very difficult to fly and requires absolutely laminar wind.

The question is wether this kite actually is a hyphen or a dash. To be able to play with the spelling of the name I declare it’s a hyphen that flies high.

It is just another exercise of making a SHARK.

Highphen – Width: 415 cm Height: 41.5 cm AR: 10

On a philosophical note the kite can also represent an entire life as the character between birth date and death date.

In my first years of kite making I read that kites with a high aspect ratio usually fly at a higher angle. This intrigued me and I wanted to make a kite with a super high aspect ratio. In Sala Drak & Tangosällskap there was a ‘habit’ of making kites of daily life objects with a twist, and the first high aspect ratio object that came to my mind was a ruler so I borrowed from another member a ruler of that kind that I myself used in primary school: a 30 centimeter wooden ruler.

The design includes in-sail dihedrals by using a sail shape that I call Wipe.

It took some experiments to get it steadily airborne.

The SHARK was born: Super High Aspect Ratio Kite, a kite with an aspect ratio larger than 8.

Ruler of the Sky – Width: 415 cm Height: 42 cm AR: 9.9

Primary school wooden ruler

Sverker above viking grave mounds, Sävja kullar, outside Uppsala

The Sverker can easily be stacked, and when stacking a smaller one behind a larger one you don’t see the difference in size in the sky.

I have made the Sverker in two sizes and also in versions for light wind. This is a large Sverker in Icarex and with SkyShark tubes, and it flew in practically zero wind. Unfortunately I lost it in Wuhan, China, 2016, after whole day’s flying.

 As Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (famous group from central Sweden) was going westwards (Washington – Monmouth – Dieppe) in 1996 they decided to make a new Viking invasion, this time from the sky. I had the idea of the ‘Bowtie’ sail and someone else in the group had the idea of the semi-3D bow. Karin and Per Byström made the first three ships from flower support bamboo sticks and table cloth from some of the group’s many parties, and called them Svea, Göta and Vendel. I built my kite a little bit different and called it Sverker and has since then updated it in years 2001, 2005 & 2016. It is the Byström version that is included in Ron Moulton’s book Kites (1997, pp 220-221). 

Sverker in an old Viking name, and also the name of my father and my own middle name.

The plan for Sverker can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

When I was in high school in a small country city I used to buy a Peanuts booklet every time I came into the big city, and I built up the collection over those three years.

When I started making kites I put paper slips where there was a mentioning of kites in the booklets.

And when I wanted to make the Charlie Brown kite I found the perfect template in ‘You need help, Charlie Brown’; just had to tilt the arms upward a bit.

I sent the picture of Charlie Brown flying his kite to Charles M. Schultz and got a very nice reply.

I think that the reason I never started with kites while young was maybe that I had a Charlie Brown complex: Charlie Brown has never managed to build a kite and get it up flying.

So when I had become a kite flier I thought it was only appropriate to make a kite of Charlie Brown flying a kite from his hand. It was tricky and had always to be adjusted for different winds.

 

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

I think that the reason I never started with kites while young was maybe that I had a Charlie Brown complex: Charlie Brown has never managed to build a kite and get it up flying.

So when I had become a kite flier I thought it was only appropriate to make a kite of Charlie Brown flying a kite from his hand. It was tricky and had always to be adjusted for different winds.

 

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

I think that the reason I never started with kites while young was maybe that I had a Charlie Brown complex: Charlie Brown has never managed to build a kite and get it up flying.

So when I had become a kite flier I thought it was only appropriate to make a kite of Charlie Brown flying a kite from his hand. It was tricky and had always to be adjusted for different winds.

 

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

The Fold Black is inspired by Chinese Rigid Wing kites and the Fold Black is simply the wing part of the Rigid Wing, only tripled.

The Fold Black comes in two versions, A and B. B is more or less A turned over back to front. The sail material is stiff Tyvek (type 10, like Tyvek envelopes or housewrap air barrier), the spine is a triangular wooden stick and the spars are thin bamboo sticks from a window blind. The Fold Black is not dismountable, and since the foldings are rather sensitive, a transportation box needs to be used to and from the field.

The Fold Black flies without tails, and I like to fly A and B on a forked string, pretty close to each other. I enjoy hearing people discuss whether they are exactly alike or not, and what, if any, the difference might be…

So far I have made these kites only triple winged, but I suppose you can make as many wings as you like. If you cut out each kite half in one piece, you would have a geometrical limitation on how many wings could be attached to each other before you would have a complete circle.

Your comments are welcome, especially if you come up with a Model C.

Design year 1994.

Chinese Rigid Wing kite

Red Train

A-Kross frame train with red celluloid.

In order to make the edges less prone to tear I put adhesive tape along the edges.

 

Coleur X

In Dieppe 1996 the theme for the kite competition was Colour and Transparency. 

I made an A-Kross train of clear celluloid and with the bamboo frames painted in different colors: the colours of the rainbow; I think five by five.

The judges were not impressed (they had another interpretation of  ‘transparency’ and probably didn’t notice the colouring scheme), although the editor of  the French kite magazine Kite Passion was: he published the plan for it in Autumn 1997.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/

Picture from local newspaper Västmanlands Läns Tidning.

Tails abundance!

With an intricate bridle system and extended tails half of the train (39 cards) was test flewn on a local kite festival before going to Cervia.

This is what I managed to simplify into the A-Kross frame system: A  train of rectangular kites on a single line and without tails. I felt quite proud.

The Tarot Train

We in Sala Drak & Tangosällskap built this Della Porta train of Tarot card images painted on Tyvek.

Photo courtesy of Mats Wikman

Unfortunately I don’t have any picture of my own of this kite. This picture is from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda, same paper that provided the placards.

The A-Kross Frame Train

My very first original design, made two years after I became a kite addict.

In 1992, before I had even touched a kite in my life, I was invited by Sala Drak & Tangosällskap (a group of friends from my small hometown) to join them to Cervia. I thought -Why not? As preparation we built a train of a deck of Tarot cards. The cells were Della Porta and we got a recommendation from a Danish “kite expert” on how to bridle: Apart from the two top lines going from top corner to top corner there should be two lines from the centre of each kite going to the top corners of the kite in front. At the Cervia beach we could not make it fly: each launch trial under the burning sun resulted in a mess of long tails and bridle lines that took half an hour the clear up. Only after borrowing a strong lifter kite we got the train up.

On my way back home I was contemplating on this; there must be a more simple way to make a train of rectangular kites: just one line and no tails.

In 1994 I successfully designed the A-Kross frame and used actual placards from the local newspaper Sala Allehanda as sail. This kite won the Gold Medal at Drakfesten på Gärdet (the kite festival in Stockholm organized by Konstfack Art School) the same year, and this prize is still my most treasured prize.

A very nice memory is from Bandar Lampung, Sumatra, 1995. I was flying the SA train when a grey haired Japanese gentleman came up to me and said: “Your kite looks like mine but yours have no tail!” That was legendary Eiji Ohasi and we became good friends.

I sent the picture of Charlie Brown flying his kite to Charles M. Schultz and got a very nice reply.

I think that the reason I never started with kites while young was maybe that I had a Charlie Brown complex: Charlie Brown has never managed to build a kite and get it up flying.

So when I had become a kite flier I thought it was only appropriate to make a kite of Charlie Brown flying a kite from his hand. It was tricky and had always to be adjusted for different winds.

 

After being heavily taken down by Peter Lynn on Cervia beach in 1995 I added one cell.

It was promptly approved by Peter.

Volvolare

A Chinese Dragon type kite, but with alternating round and triangular cells, with a Volvo 850 as ‘dragonhead’.

    VOLVO (latin) - I roll

    Volare (italian) - I fly

Made in 1995

Cumulonimbus

At Bandar Lampung kite festival (one of the six kite festivals in the grand Indonesia kite festival tour 1995) the kite was awarded the prize ‘Most humorous kite’.

With fake mustache.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway

Two years later I had to put on a fake mustache when flying it.

Picture from local newspaper in Fredrikstad, Norway 1997.

Picture form a local newspaper in Malmö, south Sweden.

The T-shirt explains the different meanings of Drake.

Based on the Chinese kite type with half rigid/half soft I made this self portrait for Cervia 1995.

I also made one for my son, and he came straight from finished conscription and joined me in Cervia.

We had a great Father-and-Son moment on the beach – see the video below.

I was honoured to have also the plan for this kite published, in Kite Lines, Summer 1996, Vol 12 No. 1.

Mel Govig took the picture at a kite festival in Fredrikstad, Norway, and gave it the nice caption A study in contrasting pairs.

The building plan can be found here: http://windman.se/kite-plans/