50 free Kites trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kites were flown in China 2,500 years ago, commanded a Korean navy, lifted Benjamin Franklin's key into a thunderstorm and carried the Wright brothers' first wing-warping experiment. Today they cut each other down over Ahmedabad, pull riders across the ocean and fly under their own category at the Olympics. This kite trivia quiz covers the history, science and festivals of kites, from muyuan and fengzheng to Hargrave's box kite, the Rogallo wing, manja, Weifang's kite capital, the wau bulan and the Bali Kite Festival. Every answer is sourced and explained.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which two 5th-century BC Chinese philosophers are credited with inventing the kite?
Mozi and Lu Ban
Their wooden kites were called muyuan. Silk sails, silk line and bamboo frames were all readily available in ancient China.
Q 02The modern Chinese word for kite, fengzheng, is named after what?
The sound kites made in the wind
By the Tang dynasty, bamboo flutes and whistles were tied to kites so they would sing. Vietnamese kites still fly tailless with small flutes attached.
Q 03Which traveller first brought stories of kites to Europe at the end of the 13th century?
Marco Polo
Actual kites arrived later, carried home by sailors from Japan and Malaysia in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Q 04The English word 'kite' comes from the name of what?
A hovering bird of prey
Kites of the genus Milvus hang almost motionless in the wind while hunting, just like the toy.
Q 05In 1752, Benjamin Franklin published a kite experiment to prove what?
That lightning is electricity
A metal house key hung from the wet hemp line; a dry silk cord let Franklin hold it safely from an open shed. His son William reportedly helped.
Q 06What object did Franklin tie to the end of his kite string to draw off the charge?
A metal house key
He had borrowed it from a friend, Benjamin Loxley. A Frenchman, Thomas-François Dalibard, had already drawn lightning with an iron rod a month earlier.
Q 07Who invented the box kite in 1893?
Lawrence Hargrave
The English-born Australian was trying to build a manned flying machine and never patented anything, calling patent fees 'much wasted money'.
Q 08On 12 November 1894, Hargrave lifted himself off a beach under a train of how many box kites?
Four
He rose about 16 feet at Stanwell Park, south of Sydney, which is now Australia's best-known hang-gliding site.
Q 09On 27 July 1899 the Wright brothers tested which key flight-control idea with a biplane kite?
Wing warping
Twisting the wings to roll the aircraft was the control breakthrough that earlier glider pioneers like Lilienthal and Pilcher had lacked.
Q 10Which British Army man-lifter was developed by a Wild West showman?
The Cody kite
Samuel Franklin Cody's winged box kites hauled lookouts aloft. Baden-Powell's Levitor was shipped to the Boer War but arrived after the fighting ended.
Q 11Which telephone pioneer experimented with very large man-lifting tetrahedral kites?
Alexander Graham Bell
Bell's cellular kites were built from thousands of tiny tetrahedral frames. The Wright brothers and Hargrave also built man-lifters.
Q 12The flexible Rogallo wing, later used for hang gliders, was invented in 1948 by a NASA engineer and whom?
His wife
Francis and Gertrude Rogallo called it the Parawing. NASA considered it for landing Gemini capsules before choosing ordinary parachutes in 1964.
Q 13Which kite design was adapted for parachuting and paragliding?
The parafoil
Its ram-air cells inflate in flight with no rigid frame. The Rogallo wing, by contrast, became the stunt kite and hang glider.
Q 21Basant, the Punjabi kite festival patronised by Mughal emperors, marks the start of which season?
Spring
It falls on the fifth day of Magh, in late January or early February, and was celebrated at the Lahore Fort.
Q 22Gujarat's huge kite-flying festival Uttarayan coincides with which Hindu harvest festival?
Makar Sankranti
It marks the Sun's move into Capricorn around January 14. Vadodara, Surat and Ahmedabad host a three-day international kite festival beforehand.
Q 23The wau bulan, an intricately decorated traditional kite, comes from which country?
Malaysia
The 'moon kite' is flown in Kelantan. A related design, the wau kucing or cat kite, is the basis of Malaysia Airlines' logo.
Q 14According to the Samguk Sagi, how did general Kim Yu-sin use fire in 647?
To rally troops with flaming kites
He launched burning kites to rally his troops, and the blaze in the sky also terrified the rebels. Nearly a thousand years later Admiral Yi signalled his fleet with kites.
Q 15Which Korean admiral commanded his navy with kites during the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598?
Yi Sun-sin
Yi Sun-sin's turtle ships are better remembered, but different kite patterns relayed his orders across the fleet.
Q 16Which Chinese city calls itself the kite capital of the world?
Weifang
It hosts the largest kite museum in the world, and the Weifang International Kite Festival runs every April 20–25.
Q 17China's first international kite festival in 1984 got help from a kite association based where?
Seattle
David Checkley of the Seattle Kite Association helped stage it on April 1, 1984. Four years later the festival formally declared Weifang the Kite Capital.
Q 18Manja, the string used for kite fighting in South Asia, is cotton thread coated with what?
Powdered glass
Rice glue or tree gum binds the abrasive to the thread. Injuries from the razor-like line have led to bans in parts of Pakistan.
Q 19In kite fighting, what are the children who chase down cut-loose kites called?
Runners
A cut kite belongs to nobody until someone claims it, which gave Khaled Hosseini's novel and the 2007 film their title.
Q 20In Afghanistan, kite flying is known in Dari by what name?
Gudiparan bazi
The Taliban banned it along with many other recreations. Patang is the Hindi-Urdu word for a fighter kite.
Q 24Which airline's logo is based on the wau kucing, a traditional cat-shaped kite?
Malaysia Airlines
Malaysian kites also carry a row of gourds with sound slots that whistle as they fly.
Q 25The Bali Kite Festival is held each July on which beach?
Sanur
It takes place in the Padang Galak area. Balinese kites carry large bows on the front that produce a deep throbbing hum.
Q 26The bebean, the largest traditional Balinese festival kite, is shaped like what?
A fish
It has a broad mouth and split tail. The janggan is bird-shaped and the pecukan leaf-shaped; the three are flown by competing village teams.
Q 27The Hamamatsu Kite Festival in Japan began as a way to celebrate what?
The birth of a first son
More than 100 kites fly over the Nakatajima Sand Dunes every May 3–5. Families still launch a kite bearing a new child's name.
Q 28In Japan, kite flying is a traditional children's pastime at New Year and which other holiday?
The Boys' Festival in May
Japanese fighter kites include the six-sided rokkaku, whose name simply means 'six corners'.
Q 29In Bermuda and Guyana, kites are traditionally flown at which Christian festival?
Easter
Bermudians say the kites symbolise Christ's ascent. In Guyana, school children are taken to parks to fly them in the weeks beforehand.
Q 30In Chile, kites are especially popular during the festivities for which national day, September 18?
Independence Day
The Chilean volantín is a small paper fighter kite. Chile and Brazil are among the few countries outside Asia with strong kite-fighting traditions.