The Three Foot Ultra-Lite Rotator

by Tony Ferrel, tony@kitebuilder.com

 KITE AWARDS:

1999 Smithsonian in Washington, DC - Highest Overall Score, & Cellular 1st Place

2000 AKA in Treasure Island, Florida - Cellular 2nd Place

 KITE HISTORY:

The rotator frenzy started with the creation of the “Monica Turbine”  in 1996. Monica won 1st Place Innovative & 2nd Place Cellular at the 1996 AKA Convention in Santa Monica, California. The kite was such a people stopper, I just had to proceed to the next step. I re-engineered the Monica by increasing the wing area, reduced the weight by changing the stick sizes, and added an afterburner. The Green & Red Turbines were born...

The “Green Turbine” won big at the 1997 Smithsonian. It took 1st Place Cellular, Highest Score in Age Category, Highest Score Of Any Kite Entered in the Competition, and the Peoples Choice Award. The “Red Turbine” now resides on loan at the Ben Franklin Museum/Restaurant kite display as part of the Lehigh Valley Kite Society’s display in Philadelphia, PA. Although the red & green both fly really well with a minimum air speed of 4 MPH, I decided to go yet one step further.

The Three Foot Maryland Ultralite Rotator was born... This kite is definitely the first cellular kite in the air. Minimum air speed is 2 MPH and with it’s back glide capabilities, if you work it, it flies in just a breath. The original rotator sparred with .125 & .08 solid micro-carbon weighs only a tad more than 11 ounces.

In May of 2000, I again tweaked the engineering of this design. I did an analysis comparing the .125 SG to the new 4 MM Hollow Linear Graphite sticks. Much to my surprise I found that I could increase the stick diameter from .125 to .157 (4 MM) which makes the stick incredibly stiffer; and, by having it hollow instead of solid, the overall weight goes down by over an ounce. Therefore, the four kites built in 2000 were sparred with 4 MM LG and .08 SG which resulted in a stiffer kite that is lighter by an ounce, which results in a kite with a higher upper end. Don’t know what the upper limit is yet, but I do not see any distortion at 12 MPH that was obvious on the original.

I’m proud to say that at 2000 AKA in Treasure Island, Florida the #8 kite, owned by Drake Smith, and  flown by John Davenport  as my proxy kite won 2nd Place Cellular. The only reason Drake did not fly the kite was he was committed to fly the Tetra Co-operative at the same time, and he also took 2nd Place Cellular Co-operative.

So, what’s the next step?

I do believe I can increase the size of this design to 4 feet with 4 MM sticks; thereby increasing lift by some 25%, and only increasing weight by 10%. Should dramatically improve performance, don’t you think. Look for it in 2001.