New uses for Kites

    Larger and more powerful kites were designed and in the 1980's, and Traction Kites were born. Anytime you see a Kite being used as propulsion, that's a traction kite, and it is usually more powerful than you'd believe. Peter Lynn of New Zealand is the first to go on record with one when he introduced a stainless steel, kite-powered buggy, much in the spirit of George Pocock. (The Real first traction kite user in 1822.)

    The sport of Kite Surfing was also born in the 80's, and Parasailing soon thereafter, which can usually be witnessed on any given day at a popular tourist beach near you. In the 1990's, kite traction on wheels, over water, and on ice have become increasingly popular, and in 1999, a team actually used kite power to pull sleds to the North Pole!

    If you have heard of Solar Sailing, the type of spaceship propulsion which catches Photons of light in the net of a spaceship for interstellar propulsion, then you have seen evidence of yet another type of traction kiting, only not with air molecules but with light instead. Experiments with solar sailing are alive and well and have been proven to work within Earth's orbit so far. 

    I know it's hard to top that example, but what will you think of Next?