PL Show Kites Early History

Show kites are kites that are flown at Kite Festivals to delight of children of all ages. They are LARGE kites because they need to be visible from 100s of metres away.  They're also likely to use bright colours and be of distinctive design and decoration to enhance their entertainment value.

The first large kite I built was when I was eleven or twelve years old in the late 1950's.  It was a conventional diamond kite covered with heavy brown paper, 2.3m to the cross stick and used 8 coal sacks for a tail.  Flown at the Allenton School Grounds on the winch line from our families Kon Tiki fishing raft during a strong nor-wester with, I recall, Graham Church, it caught in an Oak tree and ripped a large branch off.  This was the first major kite skirmish I've had with trees, and regrettably the only winning one I think- unless you score the many trees later felled as retribution, some by the principle of collective punishment.

My next large kite, a 5m x 6m span flare kite made with fabric and an aluminium frame was not until the 1970s and this was a genuine show kite.

In 1978 there was the first of many large PLT Box kites- see separate section.

And in 1984, a 9m wingspan Dragonfly for the inaugural Weifang International Kite Festival, which was taken back and flown at their 2013 event after which it was presented to the Weifang Kite Museum.

Even with the use of fibreglass, and later, carbon tubes, framed kites are severely limited by size (they get too heavy to fly), pose air travel difficulties and are a safety concern.

 In 1984, this led to the development of our first soft kite, a ram air inflated Centipede, 4m x 14m for the 15 cell version, 4m x 22m for the 25, also in 1984.  These were flown with two fibreglass rods to hold the feelers out but could be flown without.  I recall that a Centipede won first prize at the 1984 Weifang event.

By the standards of that time, they were not regarded as kites because while generating lift, they didn't fly alone and were generally flown under a PLT Box. Since the general adoption of Pilot kites in the late 1990's the definition of what is a kite and what is not has blurred.  If it's up in the air and is more than just a flag, banner or windsock, then it's now generally regarded as a kite.

In 1988 came the first ram air inflated Ray kite. These (2024) have been PL Kites' most successful show kite because of their visual appeal and excellent flying (often used as the top kite in trains of show kites at events).  The first was built for the 1988 Dieppe Festival and had a smooth tail- as have some much later versions- but for the best fly-alone characteristics they use a bucket tail (series of interconnected drogues).  They've been scaled up to 1250sq.m (the Pearl) and down to just 0.75m wingspan.

In 1990 there was a brief return to framed kites with a 9m wingspan White Heron built for the opening ceremony of the Auckland Commonwealth Games.  This design was later used to make Stork kites (including an 18m span one), and a 10m span Hornbill.

Also in 1990 we made the first large ram-air inflated Octopus kite.  This developed from a kite built for James White's 1990 Napier International Kite Festival.  In 1990, unwanted (and hence cheap) fabric tended to be green (now its fluoro colours).  Consequently, the first Octopus and quite a few of its successors were green.   These first ones had two rows of 4 tentacles rather than one row of eight and used ribs rather than thru cords. 

In April 1990, I took the first one to Thailand and then to Japan.  In Thailand it featured on the front page of a national newspaper, in a photo captured exactly us it hit the ground in a head-first dive - looking like a giant cactus.  The caption called it an Australian kite, but never mind.

Until the Ray's flying characteristics were improved in the early 2000's, Octopuses were our best-selling show kite.

In the early days of our kite business, fabric was much more expensive than it is now, and we were always looking for ways to use offcuts.  The 6m diameter Fugu (puffer fish) developed in early 1993, was an excellent way to do this, using 150mm wide strips of any length.  The spherical shape is contrived by sewing progressively more pleats into these joined together strips towards the mouth and tail.  Not a kite in the true sense, Fugus are Bernoulli devices- flow effects cause them to bounce up and down rhythmically.  Children can play underneath as they bounce and go inside for a special experience while they are held down.  In strong winds they pull a lot- leading to various alarming experiences when they break free.  On one occasion on the ice encrusted Timmendorfer Strand in Northern Germany, this happened while I was inside doing repairs and we rolled out into the surf.  Fortunately, I had scissors with me.  

Developed in 1994, the Trilobite heralded a new direction in ram air inflated kite design.

Trilobites were marine arthropods, ancestors to crabs that lived from 521 to 252 million years ago.  Most were tiny, the largest were 700mm long.  Ours are somewhat bigger.

Their serendipitous characteristic is their lumpy shape- which led to my using thru cords instead of ribs to form the body shape. 

Within a few years of developing this system for Trilobites, using a grid-work of cords sewn on the kite's skin to provide attachment points for the thru cords, we were using this system for all our show kites. 

Called the super-ripstop system of kite construction it is now ubiquitous, used for almost all soft show kites everywhere.

There are many advantages: It's lighter, stronger and the internal space is one cavity- which allows the internal air mass to rotate independently, important for the stability of very large kites.

I made the first Gecko in 1998 I think, a hubristic leap in terms of what seemed possible for soft kite design.  Initially the only way they could be persuaded to fly alone was by 'bridling back' to fly them at a high angle of attack- with its associated ferocious pull.  Eventually ways were found to fly them flatter and reduce the pull, and by then they were mostly being flown under Pilot kites anyway.  The Gecko design has been adapted to similar forms- salamanders, crocodiles and etc.

The Penguin design rounded out the 20th Century, a simple and popular design that has great visual appeal and will handle a wide wind range (in train or beneath a Pilot kite).

Flag kites were developed in 2003, the idea being to make a very small simple ram air inflated single line kite that could be inexpensive enough for a mass market.  The plan was to make every country's flag and sell them for patriotic occasions.  Couldn't miss I reckoned.  But it did.  Instead, people didn't want small ones, but they did want Flag show kites.

The first flag style kites (early in 2003) were square, inspired by the impressive quilts made by my sister Elizabeth and by Jenny Cook, (our manager at that time).  Flag kites with tails are amongst the most reliable, fly- alone, all-winds, ram air inflated kites PL Kite Ltd makes.

I have listed here show kite designs that I can personally claim.  Mark Sommerville, Phillip McConnachie and Mark Abernathy also made significant contributions during this early period (Bear, Cat, Dog) and more recently Simon Chisnall has far surpassed what I have accomplished with his many and various creations- Whales for example.

I have also not listed my many failures- including some that were not only really ugly but didn't fly- like an eel, various snakes and a sumo wrestler.  Fortunately, I haven't been able to find any photos of these (haven't looked very hard though).

Peter Lynn November 2024