Re: [Paddlewise] Kleppers, Visibility etc

Someone should test a metalized helium balloon as kites are hard to keep in
the air from a kayak even on a windy day. Of course the balloon would be
blown down to sea level in much wind.
Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Rattenbury <ratten_at_uow.edu.au>
To: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net <paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net>
Date: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 5:12 PM
Subject: [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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