Double Diamond

In a previous blog post, I mentioned the US arm of Peter Powell kites, and talked about their moving into dual-line delta territory. They did not just produce dual-line deltas, they also made quad kites ...

The Peter Powell Double Diamond first came on the market in 1989, and here is an ad from the sadly now defunct magazine Kite Lines:

The Double Diamond essentially consisted of two Stunters side-by-side, with a single long spar taking the place of the cross spars of both Stunters, and with a few pieces of sail added. It didn't survive for very long on the market, though. The reason for this is that Revolution kites claimed the Double Diamond violated the patent for their quad kite. Peter Powell Kites were forced to take the Double Diamond off the market, so it was only available for a year and a bit. They did come back with another quad kite, the Omni; more on that kite in a future blog post.

Back to the "Double D", I did manage to get my hands on this rare Peter Powell kite. And here it is!

"Double D" responds well to input and is easy to fly. It does most of what you expect a quad kite to do, though it's not as controllable as a modern Revolution, obviously.

The kite develops quite some pull when the wind goes above ~12mph, but it remains flyable.

Guess most of you reading this weren't aware that Peter Powell also did quad kites, huh?