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FROM THE EDITORS<br />
EDITORS<br />
Scott Skinner<br />
Ali Fujino<br />
Katie Davis<br />
BOARD OF DIRECTORS<br />
Scott Skinner<br />
Martin Lester<br />
Joe Hadzicki<br />
Stuart Allen<br />
Dave Lang<br />
Jose Sainz<br />
Ali Fujino<br />
BOARD OF DIRECTORS EMERITUS<br />
Bonnie Wright<br />
Wayne Wilson<br />
Keith Yoshida<br />
ADVISORY BOARD<br />
Paul Reynolds<br />
Drachen Foundation<br />
is a non-profit 501(c)(3)<br />
corporation devoted to the<br />
increase and diffusion of<br />
knowledge about kites<br />
worldwide.<br />
WWW.DRACHEN.ORG<br />
Discourse is published on the<br />
Drachen Foundation website several<br />
times a year and can be downloaded<br />
free at www.drachen.org<br />
(under Browse > Articles).<br />
Playful! I just can’t get past that description<br />
when I think of and see Steffi Rauchwarter’s<br />
kites. Her freedom of expression jumps into<br />
the air on the wings of her imaginative kites<br />
and I smile when I think of “Stupid Fritz” –<br />
what a kite name! Steffi brings her textile and<br />
fine arts background to her cotton-sailed kites<br />
and has worked under the tutelage of fellow<br />
Austrians Anna Rubin and Jan Houterman to<br />
bring these functional and wonderful creations<br />
to festivals throughout Europe. Enjoy her<br />
unique approach and be inspired.<br />
Another inspirational work is the book, Kites,<br />
The Art of Using Natural Materials, by John<br />
Browning. Not a “how-to,” this is a book that<br />
inspires with photographs of John’s wonderful<br />
kites constructed of all-natural materials.<br />
Readers of Discourse and kitemakers of any<br />
background need this book on their library<br />
shelf.<br />
On a much more serious note, we are happy<br />
to have a contribution from Tom Crouch,<br />
Senior Curator of Aeronautics at the<br />
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Crouch<br />
examines the early years of the Wright<br />
Brothers’ flight experiments and their first<br />
thoughts on flight stability. Their chosen<br />
analytical tool: a four-line, controllable,<br />
“peculiar sort of box kite!” Thanks to Tom for<br />
revisiting this essay and allowing us to publish<br />
it.<br />
Ali Fujino jumps back in time to 1988 and<br />
reminisces about travel to the birthplace of<br />
kites with one of the United States’ great kite<br />
ambassadors, Dave Checkley. Personally, this<br />
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