Date: Wed, 19 Oct 1994 08:34:03 -1000 From: nickel@eznet.com (Nick Emmanuel) Message-Id: <383oqr$5ba@krel.iea.com> Organization: International Ambassador Program Subject: Tetra Kite About twenty years ago I purchased a kite called the Tetra Kite. The kit forms a tetrahedral kite that is great fun to fly. The beauty of this kite kit was that you could build much larger kites by adding additional kits to the basic kite. The kite was made by a company called Synestructics Inc of Chatworth, Ca. I believe that this company is now out of buisness. What I need to know if anyone out there is kite cyberspace knows where I can get the connectors that hold the kit spars together. The connector is six (6) small arms that stick out at precise angles from the body. I checked with "Into the Wind" and they have heard of the kite but they do not have any leads to finding these connectors. I hope that someone out there also remembers this excellent flying kite. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 06:09:04 -1000 From: pwmeek@garnet.msen.com (Peter W. Meek) Message-Id: <388p30$jb7$2@heifetz.msen.com> Organization: Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, MI (account info: +1 313 998-4562) Subject: Re: Tetra Kite Nick Emmanuel (nickel@eznet.com) wrote: : About twenty years ago I purchased a kite called the Tetra Kite. The kit : forms a tetrahedral kite that is great fun to fly. The beauty of this : kite kit was that you could build much larger kites by adding additional : kits to the basic kite. The kite was made by a company called : Synestructics Inc of Chatworth, Ca. I believe that this company is now : out of buisness. What I need to know if anyone out there is kite cyberspace : knows where I can get the connectors that hold the kit spars together. : The connector is six (6) small arms that stick out at precise angles from : the body. I had four of these; enough to make quite a large kite. Unfortunately, the connecters and spars weren't strong enough to make a kite of that size. You could have had my sets, but I garage-saled them some years ago. If you want to make a big one, I suggest you figure a way to make your own, stronger, joints and spars. Bridling is also hard; not particularly complex, just a LOT of it. Make the kite 'springy'; if it is too rigid, the stresses when it lands hard will break something. -- --Pete The best navigators are not always certain of where they are, but they are always aware of their uncertainty. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 12:23:32 -1000 From: allanc@syacus.acus.oz.au (Allan Charlton) Message-Id: Organization: Australian Centre for Unisys Software, ACUS Subject: RE: Tetra kite I've never made a tetrahedral, because of the special connectors required, and because it is so much work to assemble the thing at the field. It couldn't be worth it - could it? Well, at a little festival at Terrigal recently, a bunch of teenagers presented their tetrahedral. It was about four feet high, and skinned in tissue paper. The frame was an incredible web of tetrahedral frames, made >From plastic drinking straws, welded together with a soldering iron. Not only was it an amazing sight on the ground, it flew beautifully. That kite was nothing less than spectacular, and I'll remember it for a very long time. It demonstrated an extraordinary standard of workmanship, and they showed that assembling the kite at the field can be part of the fun and challenge. I'm humbled - again. Allan allanc@syacus.acus.oz.au = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 19:38:09 -1000 From: kyteman@aol.com (Kyteman) Message-Id: <38fh81$g7a@newsbf01.news.aol.com> Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Subject: Re: Tetra kite couple of comments about this thread: -- the tissue and drinking straws idea was beautifully demonstrated at one of the AKA conventions in the 80s; the straws were held in tension by a string running through the length of them, sorta like jerry sinotte's magic deltas. -- several variants have been flown, including peter waldron's, kinduva tensegrity structure, with minimum spars and lots of tension; and various high-aspect configurations by others. doing a tetra with fewer spars and high aspect (that is, make each cell wider than it is deep for better lift) make for a much better flying kite in a much wider wind range. chin UP brooks kyteman@aol.com = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 22:27:22 -1000 From: Colin_Douthwaite@equinox.gen.nz (Colin Douthwaite) Message-Id: <38ifha$hgo@southern.co.nz> Organization: Southern InterNet Services Subject: Re: Tetra kite Allan Charlton (allanc@syacus.acus.oz.au) wrote: : I've never made a tetrahedral, because of the special connectors : required, and because it is so much work to assemble the thing at the field. : It couldn't be worth it - could it? : Well, at a little festival at Terrigal recently, a bunch of teenagers : presented their tetrahedral. It was about four feet high, and skinned in : tissue paper. The frame was an incredible web of tetrahedral frames, made : from plastic drinking straws, welded together with a soldering iron. Not : only was it an amazing sight on the ground, it flew beautifully. : That kite was nothing less than spectacular, and I'll remember it for a : very long time. It demonstrated an extraordinary standard of workmanship, : and they showed that assembling the kite at the field can be part of the : fun and challenge. : I'm humbled - again. At the Southerly Kite Festival in March a little group of Aussies, Grant McCauley, Peter Batchelor and Godfrey Gamble, made a tiny Tetra >From drinking straws and newspaper in their motel room one evening. They entered the kite in the Newspaper Kite Competition. It flew amazingly well on its test flight in appalling weather conditions - until I squashed it when I picked it up from a landing in the car park - Grant McCauley was quite nice about my heavy- handed helpfulness :-) I don't think it won a prize but then again Peter Batchelor was one of the competition judges so that may have disadvantaged the little Tetra. Bye, = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Tue, 25 Oct 1994 15:13:55 -1000 From: cvdunton@pinn.net (Charlie Dunton) Message-Id: <38kagj$frm@everest.pinn.net> Organization: Pinnacle Online Subject: Re: Tetra kite In article <38fh81$g7a@newsbf01.news.aol.com>, kyteman@aol.com (Kyteman) says: > >couple of comments about this thread: > >-- the tissue and drinking straws idea was beautifully demonstrated at one >of the AKA conventions in the 80s; the straws were held in tension by a >string running through the length of them, sorta like jerry sinotte's >magic deltas. > snip I saw this demonstrated at a math/science teacher workshop. They used the cheap toy store kite string (strong enough and light) and sucked it up through to straws to thread them together...quick and neat! Charlie --- May you never stand in the shadow of your kite cvdunton@pinn.net = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 14:46:32 -1000 From: dickbell@netcom.com (Dick Bell) Message-Id: Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Subject: Re: Tetra kite Allan Charlton (allanc@syacus.acus.oz.au) wrote: : I've never made a tetrahedral, because of the special connectors : required, and because it is so much work to assemble the thing at the field. : It couldn't be worth it - could it? A note to tetrahedral fans, One of the most elegant designs ( and very easy to build) of the Bell tetrahedral that I have ever seen is taught by Spencer Chun of Hawaii. His bridle is one string about 6 inches, the "special connectors" are made from vinyl tubing (as in most kites), the spars can be of carbon fibre (expesive) or as he teaches of ramon dowels (cheap) and the skin design is very simple to create with only three straight lines sewn to create a the spar pockets around triangle shaped sail. All very easy. Can be built in one day. They are fairly large (4ft sections) and can be stacked to create monsterous sized figures in the sky. This is the same kites flown by Spencer and Randy Tom at Oregon last year. The only diff is they applique some nice patterns and they both spar with carbon. My suggestion to anyone wanting to build one of these is to either get the patterns from Randy or Spencer, or find someone that has taken the class and look at the kite and take notes. Again, the kite is one of the easiest Ive ever seen taught and built in a single day. Hope this helps. Later P.S. These kites once stacked look fantastic in the air. They will stop car traffic so be careful. :-) -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dick Bell dickbell@netcom.com Dallas, Texas = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =