The yoke is composed of three strings as shown in the drawing (Fig. 5), and from the muslin cut two pennants and float them from the top of the masts.
When up in the air this schooner kite will have a very real appearance as the breeze will bulge the sails and give it the effect of tacking on the wind. If the schooner is inclined to pitch or roll too much attach two wind-anchors, one at the foot of each mast, and pay them out about five or six feet.
From four sticks and a long hickory rib the balloon kite-frame (Fig. 7) is made. The cross-sticks are three feet and three inches long and the uprights are each four feet long. The uprights are set apart six inches at the foot and eleven inches at the top, while the cross-sticks are twelve inches apart at both sides of the frame. Where the sticks cross they are to be lashed and bound with linen twine; then the hickory rib is sprung into position and lashed fast at the ends of the cross-sticks and upper ends of the vertical sticks. A thong is to be bound to each end of the rib and drawn down to the foot of the frame so that the curve over the top formed by the hickory rib is even and symmetrical.
Cover this frame with dark-gray or green paper muslin, then make the car from a hoop fifteen inches in diameter and a muslin funnel twenty inches deep. Suspend the car on four strings attached to the foot of the kite, and having arranged the yoke from the places where the sticks cross, as shown in Fig. 8, this interesting sky-scraper will be ready for an ascension.
The air-ship kite (Fig. 9), if large and well made, will present a very realistic appearance when well up in the air.
The frame is made from dry spruce or pine sticks half an inch square for the long ones and a trifle smaller for the shorter ones. The frame as shown in Fig. 10 is seven feet long from A to A, and at the middle the balloon is twenty-eight inches—that is, from B to B. The middle upright stick is four feet long and the end sticks C C that support the car are forty-five inches long. The middle upright B B is first lashed to the middle of the long stick A A. The ends of the curved sticks are then brought together and lashed to ends A A, and at the same time the unions are made with sticks C C. After that the sticks between B and C are set in place and securely lashed fast. The long sticks D D, forming the top and bottom of the car, are four feet and four inches long. One is lashed to the lower ends of the three long drop-sticks and ten inches above that the top one is made fast.