Introducing the Aluula Project - The Evolution of Light

[Whattheflock]

>And the price roughly?

A kidney and your least favorite child.

[fun2kite]

We also need one strut Aluula kite please.

[slowboat]

Using this weight comparison Info from their intro video.
I have calculated the weights of there Aluula kites.
The Dacron weights I got from their website.
The kite weighed in their video I believe is the Flite 12m.
Pretty Amazing I must say.

F9FC53BA-3072-4E6F-A47B-D2DE313641A2.png
Aluula weight comparison.jpg

Nothing personal, but I am a bit skeptical about these weights. We don't know if the 12 Flite is a true production kite and all the other weights are based on a lot of unverified assumptions.

[ORSales]

Thanks guys, very exciting indeed.

Richard will be giving a presentation at the AWSI / GKA meeting on Wednesday next week (14th). I expect many of the magazines will be there and will video so expect to see some more come out of that.

Kitehume, great work... we will officially post the weight of all of our kites shortly (both Aluula and conventional materials).

Toby - 17 is currently the biggest planned...

BJH - prices to come later in the fall / winter with the official roll out of the consumer product.

Fun2Kite - Our kite design is always evolving, based on a combination of consumer demand / riding style of the day and our technical abilities / limitations of materials. There is no doubt that these new materials open new doors of creative pursuit with future kite design.

Slowboat - Be sure to demo a kite in the fall and sign up for our newsletters for updates as we work towards commercialization / "true production". We will continue to do our best to keep people informed of the progress the Project is making and the weight reduction we've achieved... it's truly remarkable!

[Osprey1]

With a 3 strut 12m Flite weighing in at 1.8kg there seems to be no reason for a 1 strut kite with Alulla as shaving .4kg or so won’t make substantial difference in winds you can ride, plus one struts lack the performance of 3 strut kites once the winds pick up.

[blu]

and you can order any color as long it's black- why?
please give us a choice of different colors

[Macster]

Really interested to hear how the new Flite performs. I had a 2017 14.5m Flite and really liked it. These days I use the Flysurfer Soul 12m for foiling and lightwind but this new Flite could potentially rival the Soul with none of the disadvantages of a foil kite.

[Macster]

And I agree about the 1 strut comment, the 2017 Flight already held its ground against other single strut kites, again without the disadvabtages of a single strut (flappy canopy, limited high end wind range).

But having said that, if the new fabric is stronger maybe they could build a mono with good rigidity from the canopy. Naish were able to reduce the amount of dacron in their 2019 wingtips to save weight after they were so impressed with the performance of their quadtex material...

[fluidity]

and you can order any color as long it's black- why?
please give us a choice of different colors

We don't know much about the aluula material yet.
All the strongest fibres I know are long chain carbon based. Pure carbon has alotropes of nanotubes, buckyballs, graphite, diamond etc.

Carbon black is often used as a pigment but has no structural strength on it's own.

Consider that the moment you add a colourant you may be degrading the fabric strength or increasing it's weight.

Exciting times anyway... stressful for the competition, meanwhile people will still be buying other products while production ramps up and the technology is more widely proven and garners trust.

[alowishus]

And I agree about the 1 strut comment, the 2017 Flight already held its ground against other single strut kites, again without the disadvabtages of a single strut (flappy canopy, limited high end wind range).

But having said that, if the new fabric is stronger maybe they could build a mono with good rigidity from the canopy. Naish were able to reduce the amount of dacron in their 2019 wingtips to save weight after they were so impressed with the performance of their quadtex material...

Leading edge / struts will apparently be stiffer according to the video, so you would think that they could improve canopy rigidity in a single strut design. Maybe they can’t do much about some of the flapping though, but I could live with that.
If a few more hundred grams can be shaved off then do it I reckon,
Even lighter, smaller pack down, less things to go wrong, simpler kite.