[Paddlewise] Kleppers, Visibility etc

	 To Steve J  and Peter  O and others interested in the visibility issue...

	Years ago, in another life when I was a working journalist on the Street
of Shame, aka, Fleet St,  I wrote what I hoped was a whimsical piece about
an inventor chappie and his new-fangled kite.

	This fellow became news because he invented a kite specifically as a radar
reflector.

	It was a perfect ellipse, in other words a regular oval or egg-shaped
device, divided into four quarters.  The kite string was attached at the
longtitudinal ends of the ellipse, and  the whole thing spun on its axis.

	Built out of a strong aluminium foil and about a foot long through its
axis, this spinning kite proved all too effective.  The inventor, whose
name I forget as this was 15 years ago,  trialled his kite by launching it
in Hyde Park [ in the middle of London] .

	This triggered a radar alert at Heathrow Airport about 10 miles west,  and
caused no end of bother as screens lit up at Air Traffic Control.

	I do remember our inventor designed the thing to be used by vessels at sea
and although I am no engineer I can readily see how an aluminium foil kite
could prove most effective!   Seemed to be a formidable combination of
design shape, material, and height.  I remember this kite folded flat  for
carrying and I think some of its radar efficiency was attributed to the
fact that it spun on its axis. 
	Life moved on and I regret I did not follow the story up and I wonder if
our kite inventor made a commercial success out of his gizmo.

Peter Rattenbury
Wollongong NSW

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