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puppetonastring said...
Anyone care to predict .....
Well, if the evolutionary curve is anything like windsurfing, there will be incremental improvements on proven designs, and then, every now and then a radical divergence that changes the game.
I was on Maui in '96 (at which stage racing equipment had only changed incrementally for 4 or 5 years) when guys came back from the US nationals saying that Ken Winner had won on an 8.0m sail and an 8"6" board (very short for that size rig by the conventional standards) with a completely square tail, enormous fin, and a flexible flap trailing behind the board to prevent air getting sucked down the fin. Nobody really saw that coming, and it was a massive leap forward that was then fine-tuned until the "formula" class emerged. How Ken got the idea I'm not sure, but windsurfing contains many such game-changers.
Radical changes may come in materials, construction methods, overall planform/configuration etc.
3 Kite Design Predictions:
Faired leading edges at least for race/speed kites,
Hybridisation of foil and tube-kite platforms,
Recycled and recyclable materials for canopy, tubes and bladders,