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3.2 Neue Lenkdrachen und Einleiner, bauen und fliegen



The title translate to something like "New Stunt Kites and
Single-liners, Making and Flying". As the other "Making and
Flying"-book by Wolfgang Schimmelpfennig, this one is in German
and with very instructive drawings. It contains six stunt kite
plans, and I think they are all designed by the author:

   Solar Fire    A silent, fast 3/4 dart.
   Bel Air       An ultralight, 4-batten, Hawaiian Maui-type
               kite. Precise and with a large wind-window.
   Relax II      An 8' dart with a very curved LE and four
               battens. Fast, tight turning and a high pull.
   Scanner       A sort of Hawaiian Maui with a small keel and a
               "Navy Target Kite"-type rudder.
   Heavy Duty    A 3/4 delta with scalloped TE, keel and winglets
               perpendicular to the main-sail. A high wind kite
               with a high pull.
   Paradox       A quad-line kite which can also be flown as a
               single-line kite. It looks like two 4-cell
               Tetrahedron kite flown side-by-side.

The three single-line kites are: Samurai (a Genki variant),
Starflake (a facet kite), Starbird (a flat star-something kite).


Bernhard Malle, November 1993

Since a few weeks, there is a new book from Wolfgang
Schimmelpfennig available called "Neue Lenkdrachen und Einleiner"
(New Stunt Kites and Single Liners). Wolfgang has already
published one book on stunt kites, one about single line kites
and one about making kites with kids (all of them available via
the Kite Lines bookstore). The new book had been announced for
August, but has only recently appeared in the book stores.

In his new book you can find plans for six stunt kites (Solar
Fire, Bel Air, Relax II, Scanner, Heavy Duty and Paradox) and
three single line kites (Samurai, Starflake and Starbird). The
book ressembles very much his other books:
there is an introduction, a chapter about how to be creative with
colors and forms when building kites, one chapter about materials
and techniques. The book contains a lot of nice color pictures,
but the names of the creators and kite builders (Peter Lynn,
George Peters, Peter Malinski or Schimmelpfennig himself) are
very rarely given.

The plans themselves seem to be as detailed and good as in all
the other books of Wolfgang. As I am not an expert of stunt kites
I cannot say much about the different kites. Nevertheless I have
the impression that most of them are already well known and not
really new. As Wolfgang never mentions any inventor or original
designer of the kites, I get the impression that he has invented
them all by himself......

There is one kite that is a little bit extraordinary: the paradox
is a quadline kite. It is build like a box-kite and consists of
seven panels. Wolfgang mentions in his description that the kite
can also be used as single line kite if you add a tail to it. It
seems that Wolfgang thinks that everyone knows, which handles to
use for a quadliner, which length of kite line and which flying
technique.

The chapter about the single line kites is introduced with a two
side picture of Wolfgangs soft-kites "Big Boss" and "Jake the
Snake", two stunt kites. The Samurai is based on an ordinary
genki, but a little bit modified to better fit for the design of
a samurai. The Starflake is kind of facet kite and if I remember
right, I have seen the same design also in a book of Jim Rowlands
or Margaret Gregor. The last plan in this book describes the
Starbird. This kite is a combination of flat star kite and an
Eddy in the lower part of the kite.The book ends with some very
general tips about tuning a kite and some safety rules.

As a conclusion I am disappointed by the book. There have been so
many advances in kite design in the last years and I have the
impression that none of them are reflected in this book.
Wolfgang, who has developed "Jake the Snake" (softkite), a new
paraflex (soft stunt kite), who seams to be a good friend of
Peter Lynn and other well known kite builders, could have put
some more effort in finding new and interesting designs.


Publisher    - Falken-Verlag GmbH, Postfach 1120,
               D-65521 Niedernhausen/Ts, Germany

ISBN         - 3 8068 1353 1