The paper takes the place of silk for many tasks in the Chines'
daily life, but most important to us is its replacement of silk for the construction
of kites. The paper is lighter and of course cheaper, which as we all know, is a big factor
in production. This discovery allowed a larger portion of the Chinese people to enjoy
the art of kiting.
These days we have more materials at our disposal that are stronger, cheaper, and yup you guessed it are some type of polymer. Nylon is a lightweight and ideal covering for a kite with its variety of colors. Another material that can be found in every home is plastic , which is useable for us in the form of shopping to heavy duty garbage bags. These materials are cheap and good for simple kites. WARNING!! If you are using a garbage bag please get a fresh one out of the box, although the trash might look like a neat decoration it will weigh down your kite so that it can't fly. Look around your house you might also find some tissue paper, and not the kind used for blowing your nose. Tissue and origami paper make decorative but fragile kites. Tyvek is a very good material that can be used for the cover of a kite. It is a synthetic material made the same way as paper, but the Tyvek does not tear as easily.
As we continue to look at the constrution of a kite you can see that not only the coverings of a kite are made from polymers; the tapes, line, and frames also consist of polymers. Like the coverings for kites, the tape used in the construction comes in an array of different types. A nylon tape is great for repairs and weak spots. There are three types of tape that can be used to reinforce your kite: reinforced tape(this tape has fiberglass strands), webbing(which is very useful for larger kites), and double-sided(which is also useful for repairs).
When looking at which line to choose there is only 2 types, nylon and polyester. Although there are only two types, oh man are there different styles. You can get twisted, braided or a combination of both. Each type comes in a variety of weights: Braided nylon(50, 100, 200, 600,and 650lbs), Twisted nylon (50 and 70lbs), Braided polyester(100, 200,and 350lbs), and the climbing rope which is the combination line(1550, 2000,and 2500lbs).
The final element,for the construction, we are going to check out is frames. There are four different materials that we will look at for the frame of a kite: fiberglass which is used for kites that need flexibility, carbon fiber for stunt kites, dowel which is used for simple kites, and bamboo is the traditional material. Fiberglass comes in rods, thin wall tubes, and thick wall tubes. The dowels are the best frame materials, because they are cheap and light.
Now that the kite is constructed lets check out how we fly it.