First 3D KiteThat can Fly

Sponsors

Two artists have 3D printed a kite that can actually fly.

Image Credit ~ Matt Porteous/Heather and Ivan Morison

Wales-based artists Heather and Ivan Morison's deceptively heavy looking cube is based on the tetra kites that was developed by Alexander Graham Bell in the race towards manned flight.

But it has been realised with cutting edge lightweight material, including 3D printed nylon connectors - allowing its 23,000 individual components which helps it to float across the sky as if weightless.

The design is basically based on Double wing Module , duplicate it and arranges it into a tight, cellular structure that appears as a heavy unflyable mass.

Small triangular units have been opened out by 30 degrees and multiplied up into colliding cubes that take their shape from naturally occurring geometric forms of the mineral Pyrite.

 

However, using lightweight materials and the symmetry of the module and composition, it is able to fly freely and steadily.

[source]

Sponsors