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Safety-Critical Knowledge      Most recent edit:Thursday, 25 October 2012

All AWE companies and users of AWECS
are encouraged to post openly all safety-critical knowledge.

Editor@UpperWindpower.com     
http://tinyurl.com/KiteSafetyGENLINK

E-mail is preferred.

• I will try to develop a kite control system at TU Delft, beginning the 1st of July. [2010]    I might need four years, but I am optimistic, that we can publish our results in an open source manner.

  I have some safety-critical knowledge in the field of the development of real-time control systems, because I was working in the field of medical
  device development for five years.  Best regards,                      ~~Uwe Fechner                     May17, 2010
   

• AOPA Online: Airship tether severs Cessna wing, killing three
  • "ground using a narrow, unlit cable stretched tight by 2,400 pounds of tensile force. On the night of the accident, the aerostat was deployed at the end of 8,000 feet of cable"
  • "The accident was caused by “the pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from an active restricted area, which resulted in the airplane colliding with the tether of an aerostat.” "
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• Skysails near miss with airplane   Airplane almost hits ship kite
   
• May 3, 2007, 2.40 pm (Singapore time)
  Kite caused Philippine helicopter crash
   
• Blue Hill Observatory       [What was their experience?]
   
• Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort
  • [ ] Teisserenc de Bort breakaway stopped a steamboat & a train & cut telegraph communications from Paris to Rennes
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Teisserenc_de_Bort
     
  • Budweiser-sponsored huge parafoil made by Harry Osborne, professor at Edmonds Community College in 1982c
    • (RIP, Harry Norman Osborne).      
    • Steve Gary Edeiken of Venice, California at a Long Beach, Washington, kite effort: large parafoil launch accident in 1983.   Leg caught in tether during launch operations.  Steve Edeiken.       One report.
       
    BOTH spellings lead to information: Edeiken and Edeikin; search both spellings.
    • Anapa, Russia on the Black Sea, kite-launch accident. One report
       
    • Helicopter incident. Lines are questioned.
       
    • http://fksa.org/showthread.php?s=124e8f8de8d7b427fd7a888ee9964ec2&t=9925
    • Gliding kites with humans aboard: (paragliders of non-airframed sort):  CometClones    fatalities
       
    • India kite festival lines cutting people every year. Many fatalities.
       
    • Cody Diary:   http://www.smaga.de/ecrono.htm   
      • In 1902:  "9 July Theatre Royal, North Shields.  Cody had accident.  He had brought the kite down when...... ‘a sudden gust of wind gave the machine extra strength and jerked the winch which controlled the wire attached.  Mr. Cody, who had hold of it, was dragged into the air, a portion of the machine was smashed by the jerk and the drum, turning round at great speed, jammed Mr. Cody’s right arm amongst the cog wheels.  The wire then snapped and Mr. Cody fell to the ground, a distance of a few feet.’ One of the bones between the wrist and elbow was ‘shattered’ and Cody was taken to Dr. Martin’s surgery."
      • In 1905: "17 Feb At Crystal Palace.  Lt. Holwell met with accident during kite trial at Aldershot."
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      • Free-flight intended towing of hang gliders have had their share of accidents.
         
      • Kite deaths spark ban in Lahore
         
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        EMP, lightning, tethers, kill-lines, avionics, over-power,

      • Choking hazard for small parts in kiddy-kite activites!
      • Fast moving control kites have high momentum that can injury or kill. Animals and humans are to be out of the field of kiting.
      • Attached to all kiting products could be a safety brochure.
      • Lines across highways and train tracks could cause accidents, collisions, injury, or death.
      • Line safety
      • Winch safety
      •