It's just about 20 years now since Tim Benson designed the Phantom Kite which is arguable the first ever radical two-line kite.
Here we have the oldest known surviving Phantom made in 1989 along with a recent kite:
The Phantom was made initially under the 'Benson Kites' banner and later, 'Highflyers', 'Benson Kites' again, 'Fizz Sports Kites' and finally 'Benson Kites' yet again.
The Phantom evolved from Tim's first two-line kite 'The Scorcher' which was probably the first delta-shaped two-liner made in the UK. The next photograph shows two Scorchers along with two early Phantoms and a Bantam. There were two alternative graphics available in the early production period. Only one went on to become the classic, well known one.
Ironically, it was the alternative 'custom' graphic that first went to success in team competition when it was used as the first large kite by 'The Decorators'. They saw Tim at the 1989 Birmingham Kite Festival demonstrating the black/royal/pink kite in the above photograph and asked him to make a set of four. Here are the team with their set of early custom Phantoms at the 1989 Berlin International event:
More pictures of the Decorators' Kites from this era can be found here:
http://www.felixmottram.com/pages/archiveimage.htm
I have managed to rescue and restore two of these team kites:
The Phantom went on to have success in individual and team events particularly through 1990/91 and also in later years in the from of variants of the Phantom.
I've been doing quite a bit of research into the kite in preparation for a dedicated web site, but I'll keep putting some of the information on this forum as it's the kites 'Special' year, and who knows where the Phantom will go next?.
Bill.