Kit's Airfoil is Kit Cloudkicker's infamous flying surfboard.
Description:[]
There have been many intriguing new designs in the progress of aerodynamics, but none so ingenious as Kit Cloudkicker's airfoil. Composed out of ordinary metals and having no overly-sophisticated features or design, the airfoil (or air board) is at once a simple and revolutionary device.
The airfoil is an innovative design, built in multiple sections designed to telescope into each other. A button at the bottom edge of the center piece activates a spring-loaded mechanism, causing the sections to fan out into a boomerang or croissant shape. Another press of the button and these pieces retract into a compact package Kit stores in the inner back pocket of his sweater for safe keeping.
This simple invention has a variety of uses. Essentially, it is a board that Kit can ride on. Its tapered aerodynamic design and structural equilibrium are perfectly balanced for flight. Kit often uses the airfoil during a thrilling pastime of his known as "cloud-surfing," in which he rides the airways at the end of the Sea Duck's tow rope. He can also open it during a free-fall & glide to safety, although the board is much harder to control this way.
The curved shape of the airfoil also makes it useful as a weapon — given a boost, Kit can hurl the airfoil like a boomerang, which returns to him after it has flown its course. Also, it is extremely durable, composed of lightweight airplane armor Kit salvaged from the junkyards. The hardened exterior of the first airfoil could deflect bullets, but since building his second airfoil, Kit prefers not to test its strength unless absolutely necessary. The weak points of the airfoil are the joints between the collapsible sections of metal; a sharp impact against the flat of the airfoil might break it.
History:[]
The origins of the airfoil are unknown. Evidently the airfoil belonged to Kit Cloudkicker's parents and found its way to their young son after they died. Kit kept the airfoil in his possession for many years, pondering its construction and origin. It was not until he ran away and joined the Air Pirates that Kit discovered the airfoil's true purpose and uses. When the board was destroyed by Don Karnage during the Invasion of Cape Suzette, Kit built another one from scratch — without guidance, without aerodynamics manuals, with only pure instinct and his inherent mechanical skills to guide him.
No one besides Kit has attempted to master the art of cloudsurfing, probably because no one is as intimate with the design and properties of the board as Cloudkicker himself, nor as brave. In the years Kit has carried the airfoil, it has become his personal trademark — as well as a remnant of his unknown past and unremembered family.
Trivia:[]
- The word "Airfoil" refers to any wing, blade or cross-shaped object, a fitting name for the board.
- In certain comics, the airfoil is of a different color, such as in Knight Fright.
- The airfoil resembles flying wing aircraft, such as the Horten Ho 229.
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