Don, Bruno and some others have made some experiment about "double skin"
inflatable in the past. It's never gotten to the market stage
successfully..

Hung.

George Sarris wrote:

>I believe that kite designers can improve on their
>designs in one other way. That being the drag
>produced by turbulence around the leading edge
>bladder. They have improved in making the LE bladders
>smaller in diameter and this has required increased
>pressure for the kite to hold its shape. However, I
>wonder if there have been any experiments with adding
>another "skin" to smooth out the bottom of the kite
>reducing the turbulence and the drag making it more
>like an airfoil.
>Just curious.
>
>Cheers,
>George
>
>--- hungvu2000@... wrote:
>
>
>
>>I have been using and playing with a number of bow
>>(or almost bow) and
>>SLE kites in the past year.
>>
>>What I have found is that SLE is better in term of
>>stability (remember
>>the flatter is less stable formula with Seasmik) and
>>jumping performance
>>(the Sled Boosting effect). On the other hand, the
>>bow is probably
>>better in term of speed performance (less fabric,
>>lighter kite for same
>>construction)
>>
>>So at one end you have SLE like Waroo, the other
>>end, you have bow like
>>the Crossbow, and a bit compromised Waroo-Pro (this
>>is between SLE and
>>mid-SLE), SwitchBlade, One, etc.
>>
>>The flatter the kite, the more concave the trailing
>>edge need to be
>>(probably only a true bow kite need to have concave
>>trailing edge) or
>>use a trailing edge bridle like the Seasmik.
>>
>>It is very interesting to observe that the flat kite
>>revolution that
>>started with the Seasmik, the Nexus (a bit too foil
>>oriented), this
>>experiment:
>>
>>
>>
>http://www.template-toolkit.org/tpc5/kitesurfing/index.html
>
>
>>(has both curve LE and bow trailing edge) , the
>>Flexifoil curve leading
>>edge (probably taken from the previous experiment),
>>the bow patent
>>application from Bruno and ended with the SLE.
>>
>>Personally, the main reason why I want a SLE/bow
>>kite is for this reason
>>
>>
>>
>http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/message/67005
>
>
>>(and the
>>market in 2006 has probably showed the preference).
>>
>>Hung.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
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