George Pocock

One of the strangest uses of kite power was developed by schoolmaster George Pocock. In 1822, he used a pair of kites to pull a carriage at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. Some of his kite trips were recorded at over 100 miles... And because road taxes at the time were based on the number of horses a carriage used, he was exempted from any tolls!

By 1826, Pocock had patented a four-stringed kite used for pulling carriages. The four strings allowed the kite to be controlled so that the carriage it pulled behaved much like a sailboat, and could even tack into the wind. This is not, however the same invention as the quad-string setup used in stunt kites today, it only allowed a limited kite control. It is, however, the first clearly recorded use of a traction kite.