Fractured Axel

Any idea what this is?

So…. I bought a bag of kites recently at a charity auction not really knowing exactly what was inside. When I unpacked the bag I was pleasantly surprised to find a sport kite that looked very much like a Benson Phantom Elite – only smaller!

Any idea what this is? It has an Icarex sail, Avia Sport leading edges and skyshark spreaders. The sewing is superb but there is no Benson logo near the T-piece. It flies superbly well and tricks with ease.

Wingspan is 193cm when fully assembled and spine is 88cm so it’s smaller than a Phantom Elite.

Any ideas on what it is and who may have made it? Did Tim ever make smaller Phantom Elite’s?

Many thanks folks

nice !
first dibs if you pass it on,)

Mefm or maybe the smaller brother, I can't remember the name. I'm sure Craig will be along soon enough.

Certainly not a Benson looking at the workmanship.

Don't know what it is but it's a nice one !

Didn't Tim make a number of "self assembly" kits for workshop back in the day - seem to remember seeing a smaller phantom a while ago which came from a workshop.

Tony

Nigel, as I said in my msg to you last night my first thoughts were that it was part of the Phantom 'Freestyle' series that eventually became the Outer Space. However the tail does look too short for that. I feel that if it indeed was made by Tim it was one of the early test development kites for the Inner Space which would date it from sometime late 1996 to early 1997.

Tony, the "self-assembly" kites that you referred to would have been the 'Min-Phantom' produced for the workshop he ran in the USA. It was much smaller and had fewer panels.

Bill.

Could it be a Bantam? I'm not sure exactly what size that was, but it was a small scale Phantom.

Thanks for the ideas guys. It's all very intriguing. The kite flies beautifully.

So.... it could be a kit, a Bantam or a prototype for something else.

The mystery continues

The Bantam was never made with a curved trailing edge and neither was it made using Icarex fabric.

I will stick with it being an early prototype for the Inner Space. Tim often used the Phantom graphic pattern for test kitea.

Bill.

I want to say Phantom Freestyle as I seem to remember Andy Wardley having one in the same colour scheme as that at Lytham St. Annes maybe 1997?.

It all seems so long ago