Not an airplane family

[Steve Dwyer]

I finally got around to building the Wright Flyer Dumas kite kit I was given years back. The box has Costal Kites from California on it and the drawing dated 1977 is titled Squadron kites. Today Dumas kits sells the Wright Flyer kit #202. Dan you'd probably know more about the history of the kit manufacturer. There's a good U Tube video if you go to "Dumas Kit 202" showing the build. It's actually a well-made kit with good Bass Wood and plastic fittings. The covering is a heavy silk span.

Anyway, I posted pictures to 10 members in the family suggesting anyone that could guess the correct name they'd win a night of baby sitting or a car wash at our driveway. Only one came back with the Wright Flyer, our daughter guessed correctly no doubt because of the grandkids planes the Connor Flyer, The Mia Flyer and so on. And we wonder why there's so little interest in model planes, people are clueless....

BTW, this is supposed to be a kite, I built it using epoxy and CA and Mod Poge for the covering and it's rigid, but I have to say one hit to the ground and it'd be kindling.

Steve

[Gerald Arana]

I finally got around to building the Wright Flyer Dumas kite kit I was given years back. The box has Costal Kites from California on it and the drawing dated 1977 is titled Squadron kites. Today Dumas kits sells the Wright Flyer kit #202. Dan you'd probably know more about the history of the kit manufacturer. There's a good U Tube video if you go to "Dumas Kit 202" showing the build. It's actually a well-made kit with good Bass Wood and plastic fittings. The covering is a heavy silk span.

Anyway, I posted pictures to 10 members in the family suggesting anyone that could guess the correct name they'd win a night of baby sitting or a car wash at our driveway. Only one came back with the Wright Flyer, our daughter guessed correctly no doubt because of the grandkids planes the Connor Flyer, The Mia Flyer and so on. And we wonder why there's so little interest in model planes, people are clueless....

BTW, this is supposed to be a kite, I built it using epoxy and CA and Mod Poge for the covering and it's rigid, but I have to say one hit to the ground and it'd be kindling.

Steve

Don't fly it Steve. My buddy built an RC version of it for me to test fly...................it flew like s*&^. Now it hangs on the wall and looks great. Too bad it doesn't fly well.

Cheers, Jerry

[kenneth cook]

            I have this kit and always wanted to build it. It does look neat.

[Steve Dwyer]

Ken,

You ought to go for it. I especially liked making all the detailed angled spar cuts on the disc grinder. I made all the parts ahead of time and labeled each. Some of the face book comments I came across led me to believe some folks struggled with the instructions and needed help. My biggest struggle was assembling the paper pilot. I actually referred to the video and slowed it down to see how he was cut out and made.

Here's a couple of shots of Wilbur. Orvile won the coin toss for the first flight in 1903 so I thought I'd give Wilbur a chance on this one.

Steve

[Dennis Leonhardi]

Kudos for the patience to build it, Steve!  One of the first things that strikes me is the workmanship is all out in the open.  Nothing covered to hide it.

Good job!

Dennis