Kite Lines - Vol.3 No. 1 - KiteLife

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stacked in train one above the other . TheFlexifoils are laid out on shore-a twomanoperation in the competition-and"you'll either be pulled straightaway athigh speed, or-watch out for a devilishwind-you'll be straightaway yanked rightback up on the shore ." Day and Geoffreyhad been in constant practice for somemonths and were confident of winningthe 300 square foot class ; in time, theheavier classes as well. Andrew had beenworking on improved performance 'foils .(Six months later he was successful inincreasing pulling efficiency 40% with anew 10-foot span 'foil .)I looked up from the sidewalk-in disbeliefat this story-for a quick sidewaysglance at Ray . I hadn't really studied himat our first meeting in London a year earlier. Ray has long dark hair . He generallylooks up at the flying 'foils through darkaviator sunglasses. Now off, they'd beenhiding twinkling eyes and thick eyebrowswhich arch together over the nose . Hischeeks seem permanently dimpled in aquizzical, friendly smile . He's an EnglishJalbert, I thought, reminded of the wayJalbert throws you completely off balancewith talk of kites that do all kinds ofthings you never expected kites could (orperhaps should) do .Ray was born into a working classfamily in 1952 . His father is a stevedore .Left, friends and partners inthe invention of the Flexifoil :Ray Merry (left) andAndrew (Wilf) Jones .Below, 100 foot polyethylenetube, 18 inches diameter, flownin 1973, Newcastle-upon-Tyne .His mother died while he was still quiteyoung . Trained as an industrial designer,his natural bent is sculpture . Part of ourboulevard jaunt was spent in my trying tounderstand the conical sculptures Ray envisioned,suggested to him by the flyinglines of the stunting Flexifoils . He doesnot enjoy unrealized or partial solutionsto problems . "I don't know how you feel,but I'm not satisfied if things aren'tperfect ."The Partnership"Common to both Ray and me," Andrewtold me in one of our conversations, "wasthe influence of making things, the importanceof using our hands and fathomingthings out ."I've tried on several occasions toascertain our differences," he continued ."We just happen to be good reflectorswith each other's thoughts . Sometimes,of course, we drag each other down, butwe tend to gain momentum in conversationwith each other. The basic idea, awind-inflated wing, a primitive version ofthe production Flexifoil, came in a flash .We're frequently asked which of us is theprimary inventor . It's absolutely impossibleto determine . We're a single personas far as the 'foil goes ." The productionFlexifoil was several years away from thatlightning flash .They met in 1971 in their first year ofcollege study in the core design curriculumat Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic, alarge new college built in the late 60s twohundred miles north of London inNorthumberland . Both students hadopted for industrial design courses withan eye to future financial solvency, butboth found the more purely fine artscourses and faculty suited to their talents .It was a one-day fine arts sculptureproject which they tackled together thatled to the Flexifoil . The assignment hada bit of intentional ambiguity built into it .On a blackboard in a room sans teacherwere written several words . Students wereasked to choose one word and interpretthat in an object of their own making .They chose the word winding. They builta sort of wind vane which they hopedwould spin around in the wind .At our first talks in London, Ray recalledthat "Not much really came of that ."Andrew continued, "After trying avariety of forms, we arrived at bag shapes .We found a large polyethylene mattresscover bag . We put a steel ring in the openingand tethered an elastic line to that . Itwas all a bit haphazard, but we kept at it,making do with the materials available tous . About this time we thought aboutmaking the bag lift into the air . We weresurprised by the ease with which a verylarge bag would inflate and stay up withwind coming through a very small opening. We didn't know anything aboutinflated wings at that point, but not toolong into the project we were intriguedenough by the possibilities to do somelibrary research .""There was little to find out," Rayinterjected . "The only thing we came upwith were pictures of a U . S . Air Forceexperimental pressurized wing with athree-wheeled vehicle slung below ."They knew nothing of modern, lightweighthigh-density rip-stop nylon . Theyused cellophane tape and a primitive butadequate hot soldering iron and aluminumfoil technique to heat-weld polyethyleneplastic sheeting . Their first airfoil wingshape had a 14-inch span, eight-inch chorddepth . The second version was three feetsix inches by two feet . The airfoil wingform and gore building technique camedirectly from the balsa and tissue paperairplanes they had both enjoyed as ahobby. The small wings were still tetheredas a kind of kinetic sculpture . The thoughtthat they were working on a kite had not
entered their minds and as a consequencethey had not yet stumbled onto Jalbert'swork with inflated kites .The early experiments with the twosmall wings were encouraging . "Theyseemed to want to go up into the air,"Ray said . "We decided to try an eightfootspan .""To keep the wind spread across itsspan we introduced a rigid cross stick atthe leading edge . That happened ratherearly in our experiments," Andrew said ."Then it was a question of where totie the line . We had a fan of bridle linespositioned along the beam at each gore,all gathered together and tied to a singleflying line . This line arrangement held usback quite a bit . The wing tended to liftslightly into the air but would wag backand forth on the towing line quite erratically.Quite fortunate, this erratic behavior,as it turned out, for at one time the wingflipped over on its back and took offagain . There was an immediate improvementin its lift characteristics . It wentback up in a wide high flight, arcingbroadly but gently left and right . We thenthought of trying to induce lateral control .At this juncture we were closer to makinga kite," Andrew concluded ."It was a bit like a cricket match asthis thing rose back into the air . Peoplewatching started spontaneously clappingLeft, an early six-foot polyethyleneFlexifoil tracking close to the ground ;1973, Newcastle-upon-Tyne .Below, Ray Merry flying the early mattressbag on -inch model aircraft elastic line .and cheering," Ray recalled ."It was still very much a hit and missaffair whether we could get the thing tofly at all. We put a lot of energy intomaking it fly each time we went out .Some days we would just not get anyflight at all," Ray said .The industrial design faculty couldsee little practical use for the invention ;it was recognition from the fine artsdepartment that provided an ongoingsympathetic and encouraging audiencealongwith friends and family members ."It was all a practice those years atNewcastle," Andrew continued . "Evenafter we'd finished at Newcastle we hadn'treally developed a foolproof kite . The lastthing we did at school was to build thefirst fabric kite . It had a 15-foot wingspan and was made of proofed nylon withthe help of a seamstress in the fashionschool . Brenda Smith (Ray's longtimefriend of college days, now secretary ofFlexifoil, Ltd .) actually made the firstsix-foot wing of spinnaker nylon thesummer after we'd finished college ."Brenda's mother suggested they considerusing net curtaining and this led themto the net-covered narrow leading edgeslot which now exists on the production'foil . A college lecturer who had witnessedthe activity suggested that they reduce thenumber of bridles to three, one at eachwing tip and one in the center . (Thecenter one was necessary to give theoriginal wooden spar needed strength .)Erratic behavior was still the rule .Once, Ray averted a dive, turning thecontrol bar completely over in a reflexivemovement . The wing responded with awide loop .Somewhat later, Andrew's parentscame up to Newcastle . "We went outflying together . My father did a loop rightaround without turning the control barover . That was a moment! Until then wehad thought it necessary to immediatelyturn the bar over to take the line loopsout . The control bar had been, right along,the line counterpart of the kite spar-andequally importantly, a really useful wayto quickly take up our flying lines. Anythingwe could do to get us through tangledlines which were quite frequent wasmost appreciated . In the early stages offlying the wing as a kite, the bar wasshorter than its current three-foot length .We reached out to pull on the individuallines to control the kite . It was later thatwe went to the longer bar and pulling eachend of the bar back for controlled flight ."We experimented with a variety ofpositions for the spar in relation to thelittle vents . We had eight different airfoilshapes by then-six variations on wingspan and two chords . We hadn't completelyfathomed out the workings of the 'foil .We didn't really know how or why itworked . We realized what effect the generalnature of the shape had on its flight(the narrow chord reduced drag andinduced speed), but we didn't fully appreciatethe importance of the flexing spar ."We always wanted to keep it as simpleas possible . We would really have liked tohave done away with the spar," Ray mentioned. "The spar kept us away from theParafoil configuration and its steady flightcharacteristics ."Andrew commented, "But we knewthat this would mean shrouds (as withParafoils), which would have been morecomplicated, not simple, visually, as werequired ."Ray said, "We were still tying the flyinglines off, staking them into the ground .We wondered if we or anyone else couldendure the frustration of tangled flyinglines in a controlled flight ."At the risk of implying at this latepoint that there was outright theft ofJalbert's Parafoil design, I asked for clarificationon what effect the Parafoil had
Page 5 and 6: of. IngrahamRobert Meston Phipps: W
Page 8 and 9: LettersA REALLY KEENE KITERWe have
Page 11 and 12: What's New:Kites, Books, SundriesKi
Page 13 and 14: KITING, we call it now-the serious,
Page 16: what's New. . . Continuedthe wind a
Page 19 and 20: hooks at each end to be inserted in
Page 21 and 22: Par ExcellenceGeorge conceived the
Page 24: Sirs :I wasencouragedto forward my"
Page 27: Carolina . Ray and I were together
Page 31 and 32: Happiness lights up all the faces a
Page 33: Top left clockwise : Mel Govig's fo
Page 37 and 38: Polaroid print . An equally sure to
Page 39: Flying at Manassas, from left count
Page 42 and 43: Getting ready to take the kite down
Page 47: -.1

Kite Lines - Vol.3 No. 1 - KiteLife

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