The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Nearly 3,000 years ago the kite was first popularized, if not invented, in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available: silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for a strong, lightweight framework. The kite was the ancestral aircraft that launched manned flight. Modern kites are flown mostly for pleasure and sport, in addition to being a folk form of artistic expression. Over the millennia, kites have been used to ward off evil, deliver messages, represent the gods, raise banners, discover natural phenomena, propel craft, drop propaganda leaflets, catch fish, spy on enemies, send radio signals, measure the weather, photograph the Earth, and lift passengers skyward. Kite, oldest known heavier-than-air craft designed to gain lift from the wind while being flown from the end of a flying line, or tether.
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