Outdoor test

Decided to take the indoor kite prototype 3 outside on this nice day. It flies well in  the wind, but the goal is indoor flight.

Third Prototype

Prototype 3 is based more on a classic kite and is styled to look like a fish. The frame is made out of straws. This is the base for the new kite. It will be worked on more as time progresses.

Test Flying

Test flying our second prototype in the lab. It does a little gliding, there is still more room for improvement.

3-D Printing

Working on 3-D printing our handles from a design in a previous post.

Second Prototype

Our second prototype that we have developed in the lab. It is similar in shape to our first prototype in shape, but it is about 40% larger. Straws were used for the cross sections in the kite, thin wire rods were used to keep the shape of the kite, and 3-D printed parts were used to reinforce the kite.

Handle Design

Our design for a handle that will let us steer the kite.

Working in the Lab

In the lab today we worked on a new prototype kite. It is similar in design to our first kite, but it is 40% larger than the original. We are starting to use different materials that we originally did not plan to use. Today we were using straws and thin 3-D printed structures in our frame.

Prototype Takes Shape

The design that was proposed in the previous post has now taken shape. The kite is cut out of a thicker plastic grocery bag.  After it was drawn out and cut, we realized that the kite needs to be offset a few inches bigger.

Proposed Prototype

Our first sketch for a prototype kite that we will be making and testing. The green marker represents the base of the kite. The purple marker is the frame of the kite that will be holding it all together. The blue marker represents the dimensions of the whole kite.

Objective

The goal of this project is to design and create a kite that can fly without wind - due to the movement of the kite or by string manipulation.