BUGGY HISTORY

Using kite power with wheeled vehicles has been around for a while,
probably George Pocock started it all in and around Bristol, England in
the early 19th Century.  His use of kites with controllable angle of
attack to haul carriages was carefully thought through, sophisticated
and, fortunately predated overhead electricity and telegraph lines. 
Aiming to supersede the horse, his innovations never became established
presumably because of the unreliability of wind speed and direction.  His
systems would have had minimal if any upwind capability and although the
square rigged ships of his day were little better in upwind V.M.G.
(velocity made good) than this, at sea you can drift around and wait until
the wind is in approximately the desired direction (world trade developed
along the "trade" winds).  On land it's quicker to walk.  Also, tacking
upwind is O.K. on the broad reaches of the open sea but it is a little
difficult tacking up a 10m wide roadway into the eye of the wind!

Practicable land based kitesailing had to await the development of
buggies that can hold high upwind tacking angles, but when the wind is
parallel to the road, tacking upwind on that road is still tricky even
without trees, fences and powerlines along the borders and demands the
total absence of other road users.  

George Pocock's dream of scheduled road system kite powered passenger
transport is not, then, currently foreseeable but practicable
recreational kite land sailing is now a reality for all normal sailing
courses and doesn't even require high skill levels.  Speeds of 50+ km/hr
are easily attainable as are V.M.G.'s upwind of 25 km/hr.  Current
practicable wind range is 8km/hr - 100km/hr.  Interestingly, downwind is
the most difficult course direction for kite buggies but more about this
later.

At many other times during the last 200 years kites traction has
undoubtedly been used to move wheeled vehicles.   I can remember when I
was 11 or 12 years using a kite (single line) to pull me on my bicycle
across our school playground.  I still bear the neck scar from when I ran
into another kite line while so doing.

I confess that my kite buggy development was an off shoot of kitesailing
development which had been taking all my efforts since 1987.  By 1990 I
had made considerable progress with kitesailing, sparked off by the first
practicable steerable parafoil (a converted jumping chute) acquired from
John Waters at Lincoln City in September 1987.  John is one of the giants
of 20th century kite development, unheralded and almost unknown
because he does not travel the circuit.  Thank you for this timely gift
John - look what you've started.

In 1990 Ron Spaulding, organising the 1990 Thai International Kite
Festival asked if I could bring something a bit different to help their
publicity and suggested kite powered trolleys.  Fortunately I had a kite
powered tri-hulled boat which was suffering from instability.  (Hulls too
small)  Replacing the hulls with wheels and shifting from the lake to the
park soon cured the problem and buggying was truly born.  (In late 1989 I
had bought a land yacht base and powered it with a 5.5m span S55 Delta
Form stunt kite to check the practicality of the conversion.)  Fran
Gramkowski of High Fly Kites bought this first model - Hang on to it Fran,
it's a collectors item.  After the Thai Festival, development proceeded
rapidly with the next three (the first stainless steel tube frame models)
going to Masaaki Modegi in Japan, Martin Lester in England and Andrew
Marnie in Australia.  These all had larger wheels and remote steering. 
Although there have been many subsequent but minor modifications, the
first current layout (.4m diameter wheels, direct steering) went to
Jurgen Lienau in Germany after the 1990 Berlin Festival.  I am indebted
to these people, and others who, by taking these early models off my
hands created an incentive for rapid development.  By September 1992 I
was very content with the state of buggy design worldwide.  As befits a
new sport, every imaginable layout is being tried out.  The direct
steering tricycle buggy remains the best all round performer and the
industry standard.  There are now kite buggy's in at least 16 countries.