Kite Making - NasaWing 9b 5.5 part 1

Getting Started

Now I have a set of wheels it has become apparent that I need a larger kite or two. I had planned to make a foil, but after trying to make a single line star kite (not yet finished) I realized that my stitching was not up to the task so I thought I would give the Nasa's a go since as it's a single skin kite it would be easier to make than all that messing around with the foil cell structure.

I decided that 5.5m2 would be a nice starting size for me - hopefully big enough to fly in lighter winds and give some pull, without being totally silly (I leave silly large kites to my friend Paul - he's building a 20m2 Nasa! But there again he buggys with a Blade III 10.5m!).

Aims

• Cheap
• Easy to make
• Larger than my C-Quad
• Cheap

I started, as always, by searching the Internet for useful information - and found the excellent Nasa calculator from Tom White's site (a Windows program that calculates all the necessary dimensions by simply entering the total area you require). So after looking at the plans I worked out the sail design I wanted:

Original Plan

Making the Sail

1. To undertand the construction I made a small paper model then I carefully measured the fabric and found that the red and white fabric would be enough to make the 5.5m Nasa. I used some left over laminate floor boards to mark out the long edges I needed along with Duct (or Gaffer) tape to fix the fabric to my dining room floor. However when I came to mark out the fabric I found I didn't quite have enough!
2. [Plans & stuff] [Laying out fabric]
3. To get around the smallness of the fabric I decided that a white diagonal strip across the middle of the red central section would look nice.
4. [Revised Plan] [Cutting red central panel]
5. So I divided up the red and calculated how big the strip needed to be, carefully marked it out, cut it and stitched the white to the red... and found that I had miscalculated the size & I was about 10cm too short. So I had to revise my plan yet again:
6. [Revised Plan #2]
7. By sewing a white section to the bottom of the panel.
1. Once I had made the central panel (which seems large enough) I added the nose panel to it - this is the first that has a dacron line stitched into the seam for extra strength. I found it farther a challenge to sew the line first (especially as my sewing machine doesn't have zig-zag, only straight), but I found that I had made a passable job.
   1. Next stage was making the two inner wing panels - this time I had enough fabric to make these without any problem. Line the nose panel I had to sew a dacron line in the seam - this was harder due to the length of the seam (190cm). I decided to sew form nose to tail as I realized that if the fabric moves I will be able to correct a length mismatch easier at the trailing edge rather than at the nose. I had then to remember to do the same for the other wing panel, which of course was harder as I had to roll the whole kite up so to ft it underneath the sewing machine.[Marking white with board] [central and half wing]
   2. Once finished I now had the center and half of each wing sewn together. Just need the other halves of the wings and to the hem and then the sail would be finished.

Comments

• You need a large room to work in for a kite this size - my dining room is actually too small, and so I was constantly struggling with the dinning table, the chairs, the guinea pig cage, etc.
• You always need more fabric than you think you do - I have no idea why I originally thought I had enough, but it has meant I was always trying to think of ways around the problem.
• It's easier with a zigzag stitch!
• Glue the seams as well as use pins to hold it - this makes it easier to work with those long straight runs.

Links

• Kiteman site [Ext, from archive.org]