A blog detailing our collection of Peter Powell kites, and chronicling our flying of these kites. Plus a bit of PP kite history thrown in. Our collection to date stands at 77 kites and can be seen here. I am keen to expand the collection, so if you have an old Peter Powell kite, whether made in the UK or the US, gathering dust and looking for a new home, why not get in touch? Depending on the kite (does it bring something new or different to my collection?), its condition (is it flyable? how much TLC does it need?), and the price you ask (+ shipping if from outside the UK), we may well be able to do a deal.

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

Wing

While surfing the web, I came across this kite, for sale on Rob Banks' Yard Sale, for a very decent price. Kite was said to be a Peter Powell delta. A what? At that point, I thought Peter Powell only made dual-line diamonds and had never came across a Peter Powell delta.


Some research made clear that to deal with the initial success of Peter Powell kites in the US, a company was set up there to produce and sell Peter Powell kites under licence. Initially, this US Peter Powell Kites company produced dual-line diamond kites, but gradually, they expanded more into dual-line deltas. So this kite must have been one of those American Peter Powell delta kites. Further searching unearthed this ad from 1989, in the magazine Kite Lines (all issues of this discontinued magazine are available as pdfs here), identifying the kite as a Wing.


So here is our Peter Powell Wing!


Quite a powerful kite, which needs a solid breeze, but really has the ability to pack a punch.


I quite like the colour scheme of the Wing in the ad above, so if anyone has a Wing in that same blue/yellow colour scheme, gathering dust and looking for a new home, drop me a note, ok? It will have a buddy to play with here ...

Now the Peter Powell Wing we have has a wing span of 2.31m. I stumbled across a picture of what is obviously a Peter Powell Wing, but said to have a wing span of 9ft (!!).


I don't know if that 9ft is an error or a typo, or whether they really came in different sizes, so if anyone reading this has more information on this possible XL Wing, please get in touch!

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4 comments:

  1. Craig29 August 2016 at 15:54

    I have a lime green/pink Delta that has a hand written name on the tag, "Firefly". It is in great shape, I used to fly it often. Does anyone have any information on the kite?

    Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. flyingfish30 August 2016 at 00:05

      Do you have a picture maybe? The US arm of Peter Powell Kites marketed a "Firefli" in 1993, shortly before they went out of business. And if you're selling, please let me know, as I don't have one in my collection yet.

      Delete
  2. Pops jones8 November 2024 at 06:58

    If you are still looking for an original peter powell wing made in the usa, I have one I can part with. You can find me on Facebook under my name as shown. I have the one you show at the top of your article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. flyingfish8 November 2024 at 07:25

      Got a second Wing already: https://peterpowellkitescollection.blogspot.com/2018/05/wing-2.html

      Delete

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