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Bill Lancashire
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Phantom - 20th Anniversary: The Early Years (1989-1990)

Fri May 29, 2009 9:05 am

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:


Image


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.


Image

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:

Image

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:


Image


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.
Last edited by Bill Lancashire on Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 
Andy S
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Fri May 29, 2009 9:29 am

:thumbsup: Nice write-up Bill, thanks.
 
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Bill Lancashire
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Fri May 29, 2009 9:57 am

If there's sufficient interest, I'll put up further posts covering the later periods of Phantom production.

This early era was fairly short, but if anyone has one, it would be nice to have an image posted on this thread.

These kites are easily distinguished from those of later production periods and the label will look just like this:


Image


Bill.
 
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kareloh
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Fri May 29, 2009 10:30 am

I'm interested! Nice stuff. Would be nice to have these trivia topics for many classic kites.

That scorcher looks a bit like a Spin-off with whiskers (i was going to say StandOffs, but that's a modern term innit?) does it fly like that as well?
 
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Fri May 29, 2009 10:46 am

Interested also
 
adicakes
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:00 pm

Excellent write-up - thanks!

The photo of the old Benson logo appears to show some sort of lapped seams, is that correct?
 
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:00 pm

I had a Highfliers model. Same look as the top right photo of this thread. Wore it out in early 90's.

Loved it like it was alive.

Used the frame for something else (forgot what) but could never bring myself to throw the sail away.

Recently I needed a kitebag for a home made and wished I had a spar bag for extras I carry.

Cut up the sail and made the two bags. Removed the highfliers tag and put it on one of the bags.

It was never going to fly again but now it at least gets to go along.

Tim definately raised the bar on what you could express with a dual line and I find any Benson related stuff interesting.
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Bill Lancashire
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:27 pm

kareloh wrote:
That scorcher looks a bit like a Spin-off with whiskers (i was going to say StandOffs, but that's a modern term innit?) does it fly like that as well?


I have a few examples of the original Scorcher and most of them do NOT have 'whiskers'. Tim told me that he recalls fitting whiskers on some of them. The black Scorcher in the photograph is a sail Tim found in his loft and he framed it up for me recently and added the whiskers.

I've never flown one of these early Scorchers, but I recall reading a survey of similar kites in the 'Kitelines' magazine where it was described as 'very' fast. I'll see if I can find it unless Mike E. beats me to it. It has a really shallow sail. I've flown a 'Scorcher 2' but that was a later development around 1992 - more on that later.

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Bill Lancashire
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:30 pm

adicakes wrote:
------- The photo of the old Benson logo appears to show some sort of lapped seams, is that correct?


The seams are call 'flat-fell' I think. That kind of seam used at that time for most of the sails made with Carrington kite fabric and indeed later for Icarex until the late 1990s when 'curvey' graphics became popular.

Bill.
 
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:33 pm

*raises a glass* to the phantom.

Thanks Bill.
-------------------------------------- Al --------------------------------------
 
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Bill Lancashire
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Fri May 29, 2009 12:33 pm

jad wrote:
I had a Highfliers model. Same look as the top right photo of this thread. Wore it out in early 90's.


Yes the early Highflyers examples would do as Tim started to collaborate with them towards the end of 1989.

More on that long era later.

Bill.
 
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Fri May 29, 2009 2:23 pm

Bill Lancashire wrote:
I'll see if I can find it unless Mike E. beats me to it.

:-)

If there is a reference to it, it'll be in the Summer '89 edition which had a "stunter survey". If I have that issue (EDIT: it's not in there) then it's out on loan, as is Ron Moulton's "Kites: A Practical Handbook" which has the Scorcher 2 plan.

Kitelines didn't really trouble itself too much with dual line kites which it seemed to consider rather brash and not their thing.

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Fri May 29, 2009 2:48 pm

Image

From EuroCup #1 on Blackheath in 1990. The grass was a bit thin that summer.

It's also worth mentioning that the original Phantom spawned innumerable copies and offshoots (ie; copies with a little change).

Mike.
 
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Fri May 29, 2009 10:00 pm

Great read Bill. Nice to know the history behind some of the older designs. :thumbsup:

Mike
 
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Bill Lancashire
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Sat May 30, 2009 12:01 am

Zippy8 wrote:
Image

From EuroCup #1 on Blackheath in 1990. The grass was a bit thin that summer.

It's also worth mentioning that the original Phantom spawned innumerable copies and offshoots (ie; copies with a little change).

Mike.


Mike, thanks for posting that photograph of the Romney Johnstone's red team kite. He told me that he offered that kite as an auction prize at a festival, so he lost track of it's whereabouts. Also, 1990 was one of those long hot and dry summers if I recall correctly hence the dry grass.

Bill.