A leading edge inflatable kite (LEI) is a single skin kite with inflatable bladders providing structure. It is useful as a power or traction kite. These kites are flown using 2, 4 or 5 control lines and a bar. (See also: kite control systems) A LEI is a great kite for water use because the inflated bladders cause it to float on the water surface. A LEI can sit on the water for an indefinite time and still be relaunched because, unlike a foil kite, there are no chambers that can fill with water. Generally used for kitesurfing, leading edge inflatable kites come in many different sizes from approximately 5-18 square metres.
Based on their design Leading Edge Inflatable kites can be broken down into four categories: C- kites, Hybrid kites, Delta kites, and Bow kites.
Read more about Leading Edge Inflatable Kite: C Kites
Famous quotes containing the words leading, edge and/or kite:
“Despair, feeding, as it always does, on phantasmagoria, is imperturbably leading literature to the rejection, en masse, of all divine and social laws, towards practical and theoretical evil.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)
“A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey’s gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heaving copious sighs like the autumn wind.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“A saint about to fall,
The stained flats of heaven hit and razed
To the kissed kite hems of his shawl....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)