Kite Bomb

[Jim Webster]

http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Newsletter-Hil09.pdf

An interesting experiment




The link comes from the DBMM list.

Jim

[Patrick Waterson]

Intriguing - and one that would add a third dimension to sieges.

One suspects that unforeseen gusts of wind could play merry hell with targetting - to the extent of occasionally 'getting one's own back' - which might be why this fascinating device was not more widely used.

[Jim Webster]

I felt it fell very much into the 'And don't try this one at home children' category 

Jim

[Patrick Waterson]

True.

It is interesting that constructing the device according to the drawing produced a good and unexpectedly stable kite.  Someone back then must have been doing their homework.

As far as I know the Papacy never banned the thing, which suggests it was not particularly popular or widely used.  The advent of ballooning comes to mind: when observation balloons started to become popular in the latter half of the 19th century, not everyone was particularly enchanted with them - or knew how to use them effectively.  Some observers in balloon cars became temporary and involuntary explorers when a gust of wind or an inept winding team snapped their moorings, and I do suspect the occasional bomb kite may have similarly cast loose and floated fancy free before swooping onto friendly lines and detonating its load.

Still, if one could arrange a man-lifting kite (a traditional Chinese pastime) then maybe we could rationalise the wargamer's godlike view of the battlefield.