Big Brother (I,A,B) $$$$$ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sam Rouse March 1993 Manufacturer: Wolfe Designs (manufactured in France) Materials: sail - 3/4 oz Carrington ripstop Spars - Wolff Design SPC, a very thin-walled pultruded graphite that is custom-made for Wolff & has his trademark; don't know who actually produces them. Wind Range: 1- 20 mph (.5- 9.0 m/s) Span: 8'2" (249 cm) Height: 3'8" (112 cm) Type: Delta w/swallowtail Flight Review: "This is the best performing kite I have flown (though I haven't yet tried any of the hot new wings that have been getting rave reviews). It flies fairly slowly, but responds in a very precise and predictable manner to control input; it takes a very light touch. It is very stable at the edge of the wind window and controlled stall maneuvers are easy. It will fly in the slightest puff of breeze (I have flown it in wind that wouldn't even turn the blades of my Turbo Meter, though I did have to work it a bit). Despite this, it is harder than one might expect to fly 360s due to its slow speed. Although overall performance [seems] best at winds of around 7 or 8 mph [3 or 3.5 m/s], I enjoy its characteristics in light wind and on the edge enough that I want to keep it that way & so likely won't fly it in any wind over 10 mph [4.5 m/s]. I'm not a competitive flyer, but I expect it would make a good ballet kite - it is very precise yet responds well enough to different line tension, stalls, etc. that I think it lends itself more to ballet than precision. Very graceful in flight."- Sam Rouse March 1993 Construction Review: "Big Brother is exceptionally well constructed, with few details overlooked. Key design criteria seem to have been minimizing weight and providing the smoothest possible airflow, as well as other aerodynamic considerations that I don't understand well enough to discuss. Some examples: 1) Reinforcement weight is kept at a minimum. Leading edge pockets are made of a double layer of the same fabric as the sail, with small diamonds of heavy dacron around stress areas (barely enough to surround the holes). Seams are simple overlap-and-sew (no folds); this also seems to minimize airflow disruption (though it doesn't look as tidy up close and may not be as strong). In another airflow preservation measure, bungees at the wingtips are knotted inside of the leading edge pocket. 2) Standoffs are made of the same material as the frame, and fit into closed vinyl caps connected to the spreaders and sail (no protrusion at all in front or back). Reinforcing where the standoff connects to the sail consists of 7 long oval-shaped patches of sail material arranged in a pattern radiating out from the attachment point and folded around the trailing edge, making the area of greatest stress 15 layers thick and distributing the stress over a large area. 3) Vinyls have a two-part construction - an outer sleeve of thin-walled vinyl (for strength and rigidity) and a softer inner sleeve of some other, sort of oily- feeling material (neoprene?) which has the odd but wonderful characteristic of maintaining a solid grip on the rods while never getting stuck to them (always easy to assemble & disassemble). 4) Tail of sail is attached to the keel with a velcro system to allow compensating for sail stretch. 5) No metal anywhere on the kite (nice to not have to dispose of those ridiculous boatanchor swivel clips on the bridle that so many mfgrs are still obsessed with! 6) Very light framing material is used; very thin-walled. It seems to be comparable to the Beman "Diva" spars used on the Chicago Fire Bees but with even thinner walls. This is the lightest kite I have flown. 7) Finally, and perhaps most important to the performance of the kite, it does not have a flat sail - only when the standoffs have been put in place, making the sail taut and imparting a slight curve to the leading edges, does the kite assume its real shape. The tautness of the sail also makes it very quiet in flight. Seams use a wave stitch combined with a straight stitch; the material appears to have been glued prior to stitching. The only nit I have about the construction is the absence of vinyl stops on the leading edge spars (front or back); the vinyls at the spreader attachment points tend to slide. Not sure why these were omitted since so much attention was paid to everything else (maybe a weight tradeoff, but if so, a bad trade IMHO)." -Sam Rouse March 1993