Week 1 Update

And we are off! This week we formed our group and began to formulate our plan for our indoor kite. After doing a bit of research to figure out what an indoor kite was, we found a fascinating video of an actor flying a kite on stage during a show.  Indoor kites look pretty cool!  The video is below in Video 1:

Video 1 - Video of Indoor Kite

We thought this was so cool that we decided, as a team, we were going to design a low cost, indoor, stunt kite like the one shown in the video.  We quickly started to formulate a plan to build this kite and started to sketch the design and make a timeline for the project.  Figure 1 includes the basic sketches of the preliminary kite design, and Table 1 is the proposed timeline for the project.

Figure 1 - Preliminary Sketches

Table 1 - Proposed Timeline

Figure 1 shows a design that has a fully upside down W shape in the back and makes it way to a single point at the front of the kite.  This design, due to the two high points on the top, helps with the kite's stability as it glides through the air.  For the first prototype, the structure will be built out of 2 mm carbon fiber rods and plastic bags.  The rods are light weight but strong and the bags are also light weight but don't let wind through them.  These materials are relatively cheap, around 20 dollars for 5 meters of the carbon fiber rods and the plastic bags can be gotten at any local store.  Another idea for the material of the kite, instead of plastic bags, is different kinds of fabrics.  The size of the prototypes and final design are yet to be determined.  We will also need to test different kinds of string to fly the kite by.  A light weight and cheap string is needed that has a strong tensile strength.

As for Table 1, our proposed timeline, this is pretty set.  If we follow this schedule throughout the term and keep on pace, we will be able to reach our goal, hopefully with few mishaps.  Each part of the design process has a section in the chart with a small amount of overlap for each section.  It is optimal that as one part of the process comes to a close, the next can start up at the same time.  This should lead to a seamless transition from day-to-day tasks.

Also, at the conclusion of this week the project proposal was due.  The completed project proposal can be found here.  The proposal lays out the design of our kite and what we hope to achieve over the coming weeks in more detail.