Making a kite is pretty technical and it involves approximately 80-120 hours of tweaking and testing to make a kite fly well.
So we put in a call to Norbert Curti “sms-kite”, designer of Fluid kites, and asked him what impact changes to kite design have on performance. Norbert Curti lives in the French Alps and is a former designer for Takoon.
Leading Edge
This gives the kite his shape and his rigidity. If it’s too thin the kite will buckle and too thick it will have too much drag. The most important thing is that this part of the kite is reinforced well because it cops most of the punishment.
The weight on the leading edge is important too. It has to be light and strong, that’s why it is a critical point in the design.
For beginners a kite with a bigger leading edge has less speed and will be more stable to fly and more predictable.
Experienced riders will appreciate a thin leading edge which has better performance.
Struts
Beginners will find kites with thin struts hard to re-launch. It is always better to have rigid and larger struts on the ends. They make kites turn easier.
Lighter struts in the middle help to give the kite a light weight and better performance.
Building a kite
I use software IK design which my brother and I developed to build the kite.
We design the kite in 3D and the program is able to simulate the effects of bladder pressure and fabric deformation. When I inflate my new prototype, the kite is exactly as I design.
All the details, like bridle attachment points and pulleys and material, are then sent to the factory with the kite design to build the prototype.
Testing
After receiving the prototype we ride the kite, test the bridle system, attachment points and performance.
For a five line C-shape I can have more than 10 attachments points. When I have finalised a bridle system we then finalise the bar. The depower length; leach and safety release system are then attached.
Before production I test the kite with friends and good riders to see what feedback we get. It is really important to have the feedback from as many people as possible.
One kite for all conditions
I am not really convinced that a 12m kite can fold into a 7m and be effective product to kiters.
Paragliders and stunt kites can fold and are secured with a zip.
Sure, you have a kite able to ride between 10 to 30 knots but the cost will increase and performance will decrease.
If you ride every time with the same kite you will have to buy a new one sooner. If you break it, you can not ride with the other size.
Now we can ride the most of the time with two kites without compromising on performance, which is better than having only one kite. |
