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Welcome to the Enhanced NASA power wing page, this
page has grown out of an enthusiasm for power kites, in 2004 I bought
my first powerkite, a PKD Buster 4meter, me and my friends had lots of
fun with this being dragged around fields and along the beach by the
sheer power of the wind! Eventually I discovered a different breed of
power kite, the Nasa Power Wing, this is a single skin traction kite
which can be made by almost anyone out of some rip-stop nylon, a sewing
machine, quite a few metres of dynema cord and several hours of
patience. If your interested in having hours and hours of fun, please read on!!!! If not, you may as well read the rest
seeing as you've came this far!!
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Please find below completed
pictures of my Nasa Power Wing, completed February 2007 it too around
8 hours construction time and that included me learning to sew and at
least 2 hours figuring out how to reload the shuttle on the sewing
machine!! Me sewing, who would have thought!! After much deliberating
I decided to use the plans for the enhanced NPW from the
Fly & Artwork
site, just click on the link and it will take you directly to the NPW
page.
Initially I found the plans a little tricky to follow, but after
reading them a couple of times it began to make sense, I found it a
good exercise to try making the seam with paper before getting tangled
up with material!! |
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How to build your own Enhanced Nasa
Power Wing What you need
1 - Sewing Machine (capable of straight & zigzag stitch, most have
these anyway)
If you haven't got one try your local charity shop, or
ebay
2 - Ripstop Nylon
Available From
Kiteworks UK
Kitesup UK
Fabrics 'n' Stuff
3 - Thread (60 Bonded Nylon. Man made so it won't rot.)
Any sewing shop! or once again Google it!
4 - A 2 meter ruler, it will help alot!
5 - Decent pair of scissors or a hot knife/soldering iron with a
sharpened tip!
6 - 50m or so of dynema line for the bridal! |
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Cutting Out
Marking out the panels is pretty straight
forward, I marked out the actual panel sizes directly on the nylon on a
flat surface with a ruler and a sharpie pen. Others have suggested using a
"hot knife" or a soldering iron with a sharp tip to melt/cut the nylon
which helps bond the edge and stop fraying. The sizes given below are for
a 2.7 meter NPW but you can build any size you like and get the
measurements using the Nasa Calc which you can download
HERE
2.7m NPW5 Measurements
These are ACTUAL sizes with NO seam allowance.
Centre: 70cm x 128cm
Nose: 70cm x 12cm
2 x Upper Wing: 99cm x 99cm
2 x Lower Wing: 99cm x 41cm
Seam Allowance - My way!
I allowed 8mm seam allowance for every seam. Choose a panel to mark out on
you nylon, its usually best to start with the centre section. Mark out
this panel on your nylon leaving excess around all of the edges, use the
straight edges of your Ripstop as a guide. Now the ideal thing would be an
8mm wide straight edge, this could be wood or metal, as along as it has a
straight edge you will be ok! Now place this on the piece you have already
marked and mark a second line down the outer edge, now you should have
your panel marked on your Ripstop & another line 8mm bigger on every side
where you should cut out the piece shown in the picture below.
Remember: Its much easier to initially
make something too big, you can always cut bit's off later!
Cutting will take a while, but take your
time, patients and accuracy at this stage will pay off later when you come
to sew all of the parts together! Once all the cutting is finished you
should have all of the panels for your NPW with some excess Ripstop left
over!
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Seams and
ribbon
 All
of the seams on the Nasawing are reinforced with ribbon to reinforce the
bridle attachments so your kite will not tear apart in the air!! Now there
are 2 ways you can do this, you can cut out several lengths of 1inch wide
Ripstop from the leftover Ripstop you have and use this. Or the easier
option is to buy some GROSGRAIN RIBBON which can be bought from here:
http://www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk/ and use this to reinforce your
seams which I will show you how to do.
The first thing you need to do
is make some loops out of the ribbon for the bridal attachment points.
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Please keep checking back for updates!!!!
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NPW Pictures |
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The virgin kite, just finished!!! |
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First successful flight at South Shields 25/2/2007 |
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South shields again same day |
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After some fine bridal adjustment week after completion 06/03/07 |
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What a fine shape, quite bat like! |
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Nose Close up! |
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Another nose close up, less wind for this shot! |
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This site is an ongoing
project, please keep checking back for changes and updates!! |