English: The work of Samuel Franklin Cody in Airship, Kite and Aircraft Aeronautics 1903 - 1913 in England.
View of the battleship HMS REVENGE taken from an observation kite. This photograph was taken during a demonstration of Cody's kites to the Royal Navy. Although they did not use any of his kites, they did recommend him to the Army. According to Cody, he was fascinated by kites from a young age. In later life, he and his sons used to have friendly competitions to build kites and fly them to great heights. They began building larger and larger versions until Cody decided to try constructing a kite capable of carrying a man. He designed and built a system that, after many trials and the occasional accident, could easily carry a man to a height of over 2,500 feet and hold him in a stable position while he was in the air. His design was purchased by the War Office and Cody was employed as Chief Instructor of Kiting.
Man-carrying kites had been built previously, but Cody’s system was by far the most successful. It used a series of pilot kites to carry a cable along which a pulley attached to the main carrier kite could run up and down. Kites also played an important part in Cody's development and construction of a powered, heavier than air, aeroplane. These kites were used by the balloon section of the Royal Engineers when the strength of the wind (anything above twenty miles an hour) prevented the use of observation balloons.
Cody was the first man to be lifted from the deck of a warship in a heavier-than-air machine. It was during one of these demonstration flights that he was almost killed. With Cody at a height of 800 feet, the ship's Captain turned the vessel 180 degrees so it was down wind. The kites immediately began to plummet to the sea and it was only the quick thinking of a crew member using a jack knife and hammer to snap the cable that allowed the kites to float down and Cody to jump clear a few feet from the surface so he could rescued.