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A kite buggy is a light, purpose-built vehicle powered by a traction kite (power kite). It is single-seated and has one steerable front wheel and two fixed rear wheels. The driver sits in the seat located in the middle of the vehicle and accelerates and slows down by applying steering manoeuvres in coordination with flying manoeuvres of the kite.
The sport of kite buggying in its modern form began from a kitesailing craft Lynn developed. It was equipped with three 'skis' and was quite unsuccessful on the water. In 1990 he converted it to a land buggy by replacing the skis with wheels. More than 10,000 of his buggies are now in use, and there are also many other kite buggy manufacturers.
The SkySails propulsion system consists of a large foil kite, an electronic control system for the kite, and an automatic system to retract the kite. The kite, while 1–2 orders of magnitude larger, bears similarities to the arc kites used in kitesurfing. However, the kite is an inflatable rather than a ram-air kite.
The lift generated by the kite and other flying characteristics are affected by the kite's angle of attack, which is set by the bridle; the arrangement of lines which terminate the main kite lines and attach to a number of points across the kite's surface. Power kites having 4 or 5 lines come in two variants, fixed bridle and depowerable.
Some kite designs may be classified as power kites and traction kites, which can be used to tow wheeled kite buggies (kite buggying) or surfboards (kite surfing). Power kites vary in size from "trainers" which often have dual-lines and a small sail area, to large full size traction kites with four lines, designed to pull people on kite boards ...
The Charvolant - a kite-drawn buggy. George Pocock (1774–1843) was an English schoolteacher, the founder of Tent Methodism [1] and an inventor, particularly known for having invented the 'Charvolant,' a kite-drawn carriage. George was born in Hungerford in Berkshire in 1774, the son of John Pocock, a cabinet-maker in that town, and his wife ...
racing, using large kites and very large and heavy buggies: the current speed record is 135.34 km/h (84.10 mph) by Brian Holgate on the 6th March 2012 at dry Ivanpah Lake, Nevada. [20] freestyle where smaller, lighter machines perform freestyle tricks such as airs, spins, wheelies, reverse flying, etc.
The Peel was a popular kite traction kite in the early to mid-1990s and continued to sell into the late 1990s and was sold in sizes up to 10 m 2. The Peel was also a two-line kite flown in the same style as the Flexifoil. The next evolution on the foil kites for traction activities was the development of the 4-line foil kite.