130,000 Zooming Kites To Be Sold by WAA

If you want a kite that will dive and zoom, the War Assets Administration can supply 130,000 of them. Designed for use as aerial targets for wartime training of antiaircraft gunners, they are fitted with rudders and twin-control lines and have great maneuverability.

Price of the kites, described as "of two-stick, diamond-shaped pattern," 5 feet tall, is $2.65 each when purchased in quantities of 7,500 or more and $2.79 each if bought in smaller lots. All purchases must be made in multiples of 10 or 25, WAA said.

Orders should be submitted to the Office of Aircraft Disposal, 425 Second street N.W.

Postwar Civilian Sales

After the war, there were a few target kites left over. In these clippings from Paul Garber's papers, we can see that for a while the government sold them directly to the public. The ads from Mandel Brothers Furniture store indicate that at least one retailer tried to re-sell them.

It also appears that Garber himself hoped to sell some kites. He applied for a patent, receiving it on November 6, 1945. In May of 1949 he sold half the rights to his assistant Stanley Potter for one dollar. That's Paul Garber himself posing for the photos in the ad below.

I suspect there were just too many surplus kites around to permit any commercial market to develop. Today, target kites on eBay typically sell for $150 to $300 each!