Lighter than air.

via National Geographic

This is the Frost King. A giant tetrahedral kite made out of silk and wood, one of many designed by a man who was obsessed with tetrahedral kites -Alexander Graham Bell.

I simply love this photo. It is a frozen moment of men running away as a kite is about to fall.

Bell came to the conclusion that tetrahedron (four-sided object whose sides and base are triangles) is an object that is structurally very strong but at the same time very lightweight. So he kept experimenting with different designs of tetrahedral kites.He loved to watch them fly, especially on a sunny day.

via National Geographic

This is the Wheel Kite. It was one of Bell's favorite kite shapes and I have to say, mine too. Bell kept records of every kite experiment. He drew sketches, wrote down everything and took snapshots of kites being lifted in the air.

Now fast forwarding to our time to someone who was impressed and inspired by Bell's tetrahedral kites.

photos by Matt Porteous

 Artists Heather and Ivan Morison created this magical cube kite in collaboration with London architectural designer Sash Reading and design studio Queen and Crawford.

This flying sculpture called "Little shining man" was hand assembled from more than 23 000 individual components.  It took 16 months to complete Little shining man and beautiful film was made as part of this project.

Little Shining Man from Queen & Crawford on Vimeo.