So, after kiteboarading for a few years I decided to get into Aerospace Engineering. I have about a year left and am looking for internships.

I thought it would be so awesome to work for a kiting company as kiting was my main inspiration. Anyone know if companies like Peter Lynn, Flysurfer, HQ, Ozone... ect even hire interns? If so anyone have any leads on who to talk to in order to apply or explore possibilities?

I know Steffen Born who is the owner/founder of Born-Kites in Germany. Most (if not all) of the major kite companies seem to be oversees; hope that isn't an issue.

http://www.born-kite.de

Don't mind at all. That would be pretty interesting actually. Thanks!

This is a very interesting and insightful video. Listen to the first part; then bump it up to 11:55. The rest of the video has some good parts too:

Thank you that was a really cool video. I haven't heard much about the process kiting companies go through to make their products. I am curious, it seemed to me they would make physical changes whenever they had a new idea. I wonder if they ever make simulation software or do wind tunnel testing. I would imagine if Amery's background is in software development they may have gone down that road.

Anyways, thanks again. Really cool video!

Hey Joe! Don't really have any leads for you, but best of luck - I think its great you're thinking about these sorts of things now. Where are you going to school at? I studied AE as well. A guy like Tom Bordeau who is designing kites and paragliders has my dream job.

Lots of great opportunities in the Aerospace field - hope you find something you enjoy! I did a mish-mash of stuff from flight test to Aero Performance work to structures and had a blast with all of it.

Hey Nate. That is really cool! I can't wait to see what kind of work I end up doing. I am interested in such a variety of topics but it would be really cool to learn to design kites!

I am so curious how these awesome companies design kites. When you say you did flight testing, aero-performance and structures work are you talking on kites or just in general?

I see you live in Colorado, did you go to school there? I hear there is a really good school there for AE. I am going to Iowa State University. I seem to really have fun with designing and prototyping things. I was the testing director for a robotic sailboat team at ISU and am now in a quadcopter team where we are performing tasks in a GPS denied environment (using stereo-vision to estimate depth). I spent a ridiculous amount of time working with composites on the sailboat and am minoring in NDE so structures are right up my alley too. I am really curious how structures designing and testing work in kiting too!

I jumped in on a research group this semester where we have been testing these flexible cheap sensors you can put across a structure. We were in the wind tunnel all last week testing them.

Thanks for the reply. I haven't started looking that intensely about research on kite designing but when I get some free time I really plan on tweaking out so if you have any directions to point me in whether papers, videos, or anything else that gives a little more information about the engineering processes of kiting that would be awesome!

So my work was all Air Force related - not much kite research going on there :> I went to Embry-Riddle down in AZ.

As rtz pointed out, the Kite R&D world is very small. There are some folks who have been making their own kites on the forum (I believe the NASA kites?) - you might take a look at some of the stuff they've been doing. Sounds like you got sucked into kites for many of the same reasons I did: it really does encompass everything I love: flight, performance, free energy, making stuff and enjoying nature.

I will have to sift through some posts and see what people are making on pkf Yeah kiting is such a mesh of physics. It blows my mind how it all comes together, enabling us to fly!

I have been trying to learn a little more about Kiting R&D (probably more than I should with exams), Flysurfer has a pretty cool one pager about what they do.

http://www.flysurfer.com/en/home/entwicklung/


I wonder if anyone has found good testing techniques while in flight other than feel. The research team I joined fits surprisingly well. It takes very little electricity to run the sensors, they are flexible, light weight, and wouldn't ruin any aerodynamic characteristics. I have been excited all day after connecting the dots that were right in front of me lol. Definitely something to mention when I apply for internships, at the very least I might get some test kites out of it.