1967 first edition, 196 pages
19.5 x 25.5 cm with hard cover,
5 colour and 70 B&W images,
111 figures in the text.

 1982 reissued, 210 pages
17.5x25.5 cm with soft cover,
88 B&W images on plates,
128 figures in the text,
(degraded print and paper quality)  

12 chapters, plus :
contents, foreword, preface, plates, chronology, bibliography, index.
 
Chapters I to III describe the kites in China, East Asia, the Pacific.
Chapter IV is that of the first European kites. It goes up from 19 to 33 pages.
Chapters V to VIII are the development of kites in Western countries and America until human flights in airplanes.
Chapters IX to XII are kites and techniques, applications of kites after World War I until the 1980s.

 

 
KITES AN HISTORICAL SURVEY by Clive HART
 
 Biography
 
Clive Hart was Professor and Head of the Department of English and European Literature at the University of Essex (1972-1998). Born in Perth, Australia, a brilliant researcher in physics and literature, studying at the University of Western Australia, Sorbonne, Cambridge, he first teached at the University of New South Wales and at the University of Dundee. He loved aeronautics and was a pilot.
He also published Your Kite Book (1964), The Dream of Flight (1985), Prehistory of Flight (1985), Images of Flight (1988), The Sky and the Flesh (2008) and several books on other subjects.
 
 Commentary
 
Kites an Historical survey is the largest collection of kite knowledge published in the western world. The interest of this study is more its compilation than a historical exegesis. It has always been considered an encyclopedic work. Probably the large bibliography of 280 references in 13 pages has contributed to it.
 
Unfortunately there are misinterpretations and lacks which harm seriously its reputation. The worst is about the 'draco volans" kite of della Porta which has been wrongly changed in the second edition.
This is the list of unsatisfactory topics.
   Origin of kites.
   Expansion of the kite.
   Wrong designation of 2 kites.
   Pennon kite.
   The della Porta's kite.
   Meteorological kites.
   Kite aerial photography.
   Theory of kite.
For what has been disclosed, it is either uncorrect assessment, groundless statement or missing discussion.
These topics are described and the discrepancies explained in this examination of misinterpretations which inform and argue the cases. Thus the reader knows what is doubtful or wrong and can avoid to repeat it and be cautious on his own learnings and conclusions.
 
The huge collection of informations and clues of this book remains its interest.