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Kite

Aerospace Engineering

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A kite is a tethered, heavier-than-air craft whose wing surfaces react against moving air to generate lift and drag. China is credited as the birthplace of the kite, with tradition attributing its invention to the 5th-century BC philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban, said to have flown wooden kites; after the invention of paper in China, paper kites known as zhiyuan became popular, and by the Tang dynasty decorative kites fitted with bamboo flutes or whistles had developed into the form still called fengzheng today. The kite later spread to India, where it evolved into the fighter kite known as the patang, and reached Europe through the accounts of Marco Polo and later sailors returning from Japan and Malaysia.

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