Rev 2

by Stelios Alex.

Updated: Friday 06 May 2005

small ikaros



What is this kite?

I designed this kite after Ikaros,for an almost successful kite agreement with a well known kite company.
The idea behind this proto was to make it fully equiped with air tubes and get the desired aerodynamic shape I wanted it to have.
It is a 10.6 sqm kitesurf kite, designed to be easy to fly around, not having to worry too much about powering up before you go. It has got quite a bit of power for its size though...
Part of my work was writing instructions for the kite company's factory in China, trying to explain to people who barely spoke English and had never built an inflatable before how to make it.

Seems like my instructions were good, because what you see in the photo is the prototype I got a few months later!
Although it flew well, the kite company is not producing it because of financial barriers which prohibit it to do so. Because the kite is not going into production after all, they decided I shouldn''t get a single euro for all my work... Oh well, I guess that's life!

So, why not share it with the rest of the kite community? I know these are hard times for everyone, maybe you can make use of it!

Testing

Testing was mainly done last summer in Greece by Timo and I. Neither of us is a pro kitesurfer, but I can only tell you this: Both of us got some unintented airtime... (Yes there are pictures for those who don't believe).


Instructions

Here you can download my instructions for making the kite. You can use them for making almost any inflatable kite you have the plans for. Since the Chinese could understand, I am sure you should be able to figure out how to make any inflatable kite following them.

DOWNLOAD Instructions (in .PDF format, 428 kb)


Plans

I hope you will find the plans pretty much self-explanatory. If used with the instructions you will get a good kite! Just add tip battens to the kite. The plans are in 1:1 scale so you will need an A0 printer to get them all on paper.

DOWNLOAD Plans (in .DWG format, 72.9 kb)

Photos

You can see photos of the test flights following the link below. You should be able to see my original comments which were part of my report to the kite company.
Check it out: test_flight_pictures_and_comments.html



Page originally published: 07 May 2005