Jordan Airform 400

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[rodbuggy]

I've been going to build a Jordan Airform 400 for years now and finally finished one last week.  Here is a picture of it on it's maiden flight:


Wind was very light all day and it flew great!  Vital statistics:

18 x24 feet, 120 yards of fabric in the kite,  180 feet of bridle line, 25 bobbins of thread, most of the face of the kite was sewn together using strips of fabric left over from various projects finished over the past 8-10 years.  I got to a piece 16.5 x 18 feet before I ran out of strips long enough to make a single pass.  Flies in about 4 MPH wind with a 15 foot drouggue on it for a tail.

[kitenut75]

Very nice!

[Mrhide]

25 bobbins of thread

You have GOT to get bigger bobbins!   have a look HERE!!

and very nice !!

[Wayner]

Sweet design.

Only 15 foot drouggue for a tail. Thank is great.

I always heard Jordons need long tails. 
 

[thief]

Wayner actually there are a couple of big (400s) jordans that have barrell tails....they are just cylinders that are about 5' wide and 8' long....the tail end of the barrell has a drawstring to create as much drag as you want!
I remember seeing Dean fly a big Jordan in Treasure Island in 2002...the owner had flown it into a tree and shipped it back to Dean for repairs....
dean was flying the kite on the bridles only with two full sand bags as tails...flew AWESOME!

[Wayner]

a couple of big (400s) jordans that have barrell tails....they are just cylinders that are about 5' wide and 8' long

Great solution. Long tails look fantastic but that is a lot of expensive fabric.

I passed on building a jordon 200 for the need for long tube tails. Maybe build one in the future.

[rodbuggy]

Sweet design.

Only 15 foot drouggue for a tail. Thank is great.

I always heard Jordons need long tails. 
 

I was completely surprised that the kite flew so well with so little tail.  I looked back through my build book and this is the 21st Airform of various sizes I have built over the years.  I don't think any of them would have flown as steady as this one.  the wind never got above about 5 MPH all day long though.  I will be interested to see how it does in stronger winds.  Cindy is in the process of mking a banner tail for itthat will be 120 feet lomng.  I have built drougues for all of my Jordans to fly in limited space.  They all fly just fine with them.

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