This is a good kite for small children - it is almost guaranteed to fly in any wind and is very stable. This design is based on The Hornbeam Sled which in itself is a derivation of the sled kite designed by a Canadian, Bill Allison in about 1950.

If your browser's graphical display resolution is not quite good enough here are the dimensions: A 206mm, B 20mm, C 140mm, D 245mm, E 268mm, F 205mm G 155mm.

Notes:

1. Use any lightweight plastic sheet material such as a shopping bag that's not too crinkly or a not very strong garbage bag. Or you can use craft quality tissue paper.
2. The spars should either very thin dowel or I normally use bamboo straws that I get from cheap roll up window blinds.
3. The bridle should be about 750mm long and the line attached to a point equidistant from the ends.
4. The kite should fly with the spars on the inside.
5. The tape I use is ordinary brown packing tape that is shiny on one side and has adhesive on the other.
6. The line I use is very light cotton or poly that I get as seconds from a nearby spinning mill - a 2 kilometres cob costs me about $2.00. But you can use proper kite line if you wish.
7. Have children wear gloves or mittens when flying kites and watch that they don't wrap the lines around their hands or fingers.
8. Read books on kites which you should be able to obtain from any good library. There are lots of Kite Sites on the WWW.
9. Don't fly kites in high winds, near power lines or in rain or when electrical storms are predicted (remember Ben Franklin).
10. Experiment with designs, shape, lines, bridle length, paint the plastic sheet bright colours, add tails and streamers.

You can find a full size template here.

A personal note
I made my first sled kite in 1976 when I was living in Dublin, Ireland. One Sunday afternoon I found the plans in the London Sunday Times. The plans were for a fairly large version but still used readily available materials. Then I took it down to Crumlin Park to fly. The kids in the park were amazed. They asked me how it was done. Off home some of them trotted and got the materials and we started to make kites. By some weekends later there were upwards of 70 kites in the air at anytime. It was a grand sight - and we even made the papers. The sled is so efficient that even when the children (some of whom came from very poor families - it was a public housing area) used kite lines made up of several pieces of different string knotted at intervals they still had a successful flyer. You don't have to spend big bucks at places like Toys R Us to have a good time and making your own flying machine is an achievement that gives a thrill that every child should eperience.

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