hi !

I would like to create my own kitewing. I am in last year of a mechanical engineering school and my goal is to build my own wing as I haven't enough money to buy one... Can someone send me some pictures of the fixations of the wing and the structure itself please ?

Thanks a lot 

I can get you some pictures. I won't be able to take the pictures untill the next time I go out with the kitewing, but I'll make sure to remember then and post them on here as soon as I do.

Not sure when this will be, but I'll put the pictures on here as soon as I take them!

dont' worry, I'll build it this summer only... But I would like to get some very close pictures of the structure if you can, please. When I'll start to build it, I'll post pictures of the process for those who are interested in doing their own wing (beacause of money, like me, or just for having their own model). I think mine should be around 5.5 mē, but it will depend on the final shape, so I'll tell you the exact size of the wing at the end of the project...

Thanks all (specially my father and my girlfriend's mother who learned me how to sew with a machine and were very very very patient...)

Kitewings are extremely expensive! I would love to see how this project goes for you.  I have already broken a couple parts in my kitewing, and I have ripped the sail in a couple of places.  The replacement parts are too expensive for me to afford even.  I was lucky enough to be able to afford the kitewing in the first place.

So definitely in the future I think I would rather build my own instead of forking out the money for a new one.

Do you know what kind of material you are going to use for the sail?

Hi all,

i am interested in building a wingsail as well and found a lot of parts like the sail material and the joints (highgrade steel, still looking for gfk/cfk ones) , but i am very unsure about the frame diameters. Atm i think about 22mm gfk for the leading edge and 22mm cfk for the crosstube because these are the max sizes which are easy available. What do you think, are these material diameters strong enough to withstand the force or should i increase them?

Many thxs in advance from germany

Problemchen

I would go for a little bigger.  The crosstube and the leading edge diameter on the kitewing is fairly large.  I would say they are around 40 mm in diameter.

But if the 22 mm ones won't bend at all when you put your weight on it, they will probably work.

Thxs for your reply. I found another forum where a guy using 25x1mm alu tubes. If my 22x1.5mm bend, then i am going to cover them with 25x1.5mm alu. Then i will end up with 3mm material thickness. I'm not into jumping so i assume this will do. But first, the work... I started from the scratch with a new wing and i kept only the AR from the etablished wingsails. A nice programm to see how several airfoils will work with a given shape is available at http://mitglied.lycos.de/frankranis/nurfluegel.html . I used it in the past for several model airplanes and it worked very well. In my view, a wingsail is an airplane without tail. This weekend i will have the time to sew the protosail out of reinforced PE and strong adhesive tape. Cost so far 13 euro for 2 sails :) ...

greetz to all

Problemchen