LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Kites: Air
built 633 days ago
The premier places in the world to fly research kites may well be Earth's equatorial and near-polar regions, says Balsley. Both are of intense interest to atmospheric scientists, feature relatively light air traffic and boast steady, predictable breezes. "If we can get them in the lower stratosphere, there is no reason they should not stay up for months," Balsley says.
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Kite fighting is a very popular sport in Pakistan, mainly centered in Lahore people spend thousands of dollars in preparing different types of kites and threads best suited to battle. The kites that are manufactured for battling are very different from the conventional kites as they are especially designed and made for this purpose. Kup, Patang, Guda, Nakhlaoo, etc are some of the kites used in the battle and they vary in balance, weight and speed through the air. Threads for kite battling are manufactured using especial glues, chemicals and crushed glass and are numbered based on their ability to cut other threads and to handle kite's weight. Kite Battle is an art and the more experienced a person is in this art the more likely he is to win the battle. It is a very popular social event in Pakistan that happens once a year.
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Did you know that the Wright Brothers experimented with kites to develop their theories of controlling an aircraft? Between 1900 and 1903, Wright brothers flew gliders as unmanned kites to build on their experiments. They created a wing warping system to control aircrafts by flying smaller versions of kites. Read More
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The Weather Service flew trains of these kites to increase lift and stability since they sampled air at multiple levels, much like space diversity receiving. One such train of kites was flown to 27,000 feet! The pull was so great that these trains of large kites were flown on piano wire, a very dangerous practice for the amateur.
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In more modern times the British navy ... used kites to haul human lookouts high into the air to see over the horizon and possibly the enemy ships. The famed Cody Kite (named after the creator Samuel Franklin Cody) (see, for example, this webpage) is known for its classic beauty as well as its lifting abilities.
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