Early American PP Stunter

When the American Peter Powell Kites company was set up in order to deal with the demand for PP Stunters in the US, they initially produced kites that were basically identical to the UK-produced Mk I Stunters. Although my collection of US-produced Peter Powell kites has gradually been expanding, it didn't contain one of those early American PP Stunters. Until now, that is; frequent checking of ebay.com paid off!

Polythene sail, fibreglass frame, 3-point bridle, tube tail; all looks very familiar.

And in terms of flight characteristics, it handles no differently from the UK-produced Stunters I'm familiar with.

I did say 'basically identical', didn't I? There is one sure way to tell such an early American Mk I from a British Mk I. Look carefully at the 'Peter Powell Sky Stunter' sticker on the kite: it carries a Fort Lauderdale address as opposed to a Cheltenham one ...

'Poppy Powell'

Currently, Paul and Mark will make you a Stunter with any custom design, provided it's technically and financially feasible. Obviously, there will be an infinite number of possibilities to customise a Peter Powell kite, so I'm not going to attempt to collect them all ....

I do however make an exception for custom-designed PP Stunters which are officially for sale on the PP web-site. And the first of these to add to my collection is the 'Poppy Powell', made in support of the annual Poppy Appeal. So when that kite was announced, I pounced ...

The kite looks very nice and, just to be clear: the poppy is sown on the kite, not printed. Time to fly it!

We managed to fly the kite for the first time on Nov 11, at 11am.

Don't think I need to expand on its flying characteristics, which are identical to those of other Mk III Stunters.

The kite looks really great in the sky, and the green tail is the perfect colour choice.

Jolly Roger

The Skyraker was the first of the dual-line delta kites produced by the US arm of Peter Powell Kites. It came in a range of versions, depending on the number of panels in the sail: 1, 3 or 11. The 11-panel also came in a special Stars 'n' Stripes version. On top of that, there was also a version with an 'Illusion' graphics sail. Incidentally, I have a 3-panel Skyraker in the collection.

Recently, I stumbled across a mention of a 'Jolly Roger' version of the Skyraker, but without any picture. Now look at this photo from SKQ 3-1 (spring 1991), showing Bill Baker (of Peter Powell Kites) with Billy Jones (then of the Kite Loft, later also part of Peter Powell Kites).

First of all, you can see part of the familiar Peter Powell logo. To the left is a bit of the typical chequerboard pattern of an 'Illusion' Skyraker. Look at the kite above that. It definitely has a Jolly Roger graphic, and what I can see of the shape and configuration of the kite is consistent with it being a Skyraker.

Do I need to spell out that I want a Jolly Roger Skyraker in my collection??