It is no secret man has always wanted to fly, it is a dream that has followed man through the ages, he has watched the leaves turned on currents of air. He has seen birds floating on the wind, and he has followed butterflies with his eyes.

When it became clear that man could not fly with wings, man at first tried to fly with strings, and so he built the first kite. So began the skill of how to make kites.

That was such a long ago that the actual place and originator of the kite are lost in time. Many countries claim the kite for their own China, Malay, Greece, Egypt, India citing folk stories and works of art as evidence. Each story is wilder than the last but all are equally creditable.

Because the kite is the tool of the dreamer there are dreamers in every country the kite sprung up in, widely separated countries in widely separated ages. And each claim is as real as the next. Kite flying belongs to every land, to every age.

In Egypt there are hieroglyphics carved some 2,500 years ago that tells the story of a Pharaoh and a kite. It seems that the Pharaoh had heard many things about his wily Assyrian vizier, Ahikar, and he wanted to test the man’s cunning for himself. He ordered Ahikar to build a palace for him midway between heaven and earth. The punishment for failure would be banishment or death.

Ahikar caught and trained two young eagles to fly on a lead string. Simultaneously he trained two small boys to ride astride the eagles’ backs. Then he brought the children and their mounts to the Pharaoh. The boys were sent up into the air on the eagles’ backs, higher and higher in ever widening circles.

When they were as high as the line would allow, they called down to the Pharaoh that they were ready to build if he would bring them the brick and mortar. Since the Pharaoh was thought of as a god, this was an easy request. But obviously the Pharaoh could not fly. He knew this and so did the wily vizier. So the Pharaoh had to call the project off in order not to lose face.

The story of the Pharaoh’s palace in the air is one of the first stories of wings and strings. Although the wings belonged to real birds it is, nevertheless, considered among the first kite flying stories. As one of the earliest recorded attempts at simulated flight, the vizier’s birds are an important precursor to the kite.

Kite flying is one of the mystical sports. The kite is a symbol of man’s communication with the greater powers. It is a link, a link constructed with materials of this world, with the world of the atmosphere, the unseen and the all seeing. In Malay, some 2,900 years ago, the natives flew kites with that same idea. They built their kites out of large leaves and flew them with the twisted vines that were on the islands. It may have been crude but at least they were able to go fly a kite

These kites were offered as floating prayers to the gods of the wind. It was such a sacred sport that sailors from other lands who visited the Malay Peninsula were not allowed to witness the flying. The Malayan natives would hide their kites for fear that the holy objects would be profaned.

The kite has also been an instrument of war. It is this flexibility that has helped kiting, one of the world’s oldest sports, remain to this day. A warrior general of a Korean army some centuries ago was having trouble with his unruly troops. Not only was the enemy very brave, but there was a storm brewing in the north. The general knew that he had to do something to inspire his despondent men.

He constructed an object of paper and sticks, it was a kite and attached a lamp to it. In the dead of night he sent the illuminated kite up into the wind and sent word throughout the camp that the gods were smiling on the soldiers. The superstitious troops believed in the sign and were so encouraged that they won the battle the next day with ease.

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