Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
Frank:Frank Rosin wrote:Was done before by Windtools on the Booster. It must have been back in ...2002.
Was working not too bad, at least in the main size.
Basicly they just replaced the struts by long battens.
I had the pleasure of flying the Booster protos in 2000-2001 in Sri Lanka during their development. I liked the idea then and still do. Wrapping the battens more around the LE and adding more canopy profile would have made them better. Unfortunately, the market didn't take to kites that roll up and store like windsurfing sails and the Booster wasn't sufficiently superior in performance to justify it
Gigi:Gigi wrote:M2C you can't get "perfect shape w/o canopy support, at least the one with best LE/TE matching. With one strut (if we forget full canopy width battens) you'll always get bulky TE. The effect is visible on your design. And I think that's hard to minimize with skin pre-tensioning. You can probably smooth this out w/o using any struts at all, but then again LE/TE looks could be much different than wanted design... And it might be more prone to fluttering & structure deformations.
I love the word 'can't' because it sharpen's my concentration and focus. FYI, the canopy is not 'bulky' and it follows the leading edge almost perfect. The billow you see is partially a matter of perspective in the pics and partially due to the fact that we 'tucked' the center strut to add profile and it is drooping below the LE because of this. In the concept stage, I presumed the center strut would fly up leaving a 'C'-like TE profile so I placed 4 additional attachment points along it figuring I would have to bridle it. It never did need bridling much to my and most other's surprise. After 2-3 weeks of re-cuts and adjustments, it still requires no bridle support and even remains below the LE. So, the lesson here is that one learns by doing and in future versions I see no problem with what I first thought I couldn't do. We could probably re-tension the canopy or unkink the center strut on the proto to clean it up but it is working so well and the kite is getting so needle-weary that we decided to stop hacking and move on. As an aside, it could just be that the slight dihedral at the center strut may be adding stability similar to the keel on a hang glider and is actually a good thing. Good luck with your flat-panel faceted kite project. It looks interesting.
Stefan:Stefan wrote:Bill, do you think seam placement and correct fabric could overcome need for fiberglass battens in this kite-given what is available to you in the current market? Is there a fabric you would use but is too expensive to make it practical.
I think a similar outline with 3 struts and yes, more advanced fabrics might be able to minimize the batten quantity. The more basic problem is that flat, high projected kites like the monostrut cannot rely on coning (funneling) to inflate and pressurize the canopy as in a 'C' or most present SLE designs. That is because you need a fairly cylindrical frontal geometry with a shorter TE than LE to 'trap' the flow and pressurize the canopy. In a flat wing, a shorter TE only adds sweep. Coning makes for a beautiful, clean canopy but ultimately results in hanging back in the window in light winds, sluggish upturns and lower upwind VMG's. Today's typical SLE kites are much better than past kites but you can still see coning in most of them. One goal of the Monostrut besides simplicity is to reduce the drag from coning.
Yes, and that's why we're doing it! 
