But let me first give you a bit of background. In the UK, Peter Powell Stunters all came in the same size: with a 4' wing span. In the US, this was also the case originally, but then the US arm of Peter Powell Kites started producing larger and smaller versions. The larger 6' version was called 'The Monster' and we have one in our collection. The smaller 3' (82cm) version didn't appear to have a specific name other than 3' Stunter, and that's the kite that accompanied the Skyraker in its voyage to the UK. Or, to be more precise, three kites linked together: a 3' Stunter triple-stack.
The stack came without original tails, and I thought we'd just try to fly it like that. Big mistake ... Highly unstable, extremely twitchy and almost impossible to fly. We didn't bring any official Peter Powell tails with us, but we did have several Premier transition tails in the team bag. To see whether that made a difference, we first attached a single 50' tail to the lead kite of the stack. That definitely made a difference, and when we then attached two further 25' tails to the other two kites, we had a stack that was actually flyable!
The Premier tails weren't made for these kites, but they do match well, and the two different tail lengths create a nice unusual visual effect.
Even though the tails most certainly tamed the kites, they remain more difficult to fly than 4' Stunters, whether old or modern. Nevertheless, they're a welcome addition to our Peter Powell Kites collection.
Update: this blog post was originally published under the title 'Junior triple-stack', based on information suggesting that these smaller PPs were marketed under the name 'Junior' in the US. After some more research, there appears to be no hard evidence that the name 'Junior' was actually used in the US; these kites were simply referred to as 3' Stunters. A Junior Peter Powell did exist in the UK, though.
