Before airplanes were perfected for reconnaissance, WWI-era
armies used man-carrying kites as their eyes in the sky. It's
1918, and wartime aviation is still in its infancy. The airplane
is not even two decades old, and dirigibles and hot air balloons
are all too easy targets for advancing artillery units. For a
brief time on the battlefields of WWI, kites -- the oldest
method of aviation -- fill a technological hole in battlefield
reconnaissance. Compared to the other available modes of
aviation, man-lifting kites were lightweight, portable, and
quick to the air. Once aloft, the "pilot" could survey the
battlefield and signal enemy positions down to the ground. They
could be assembled and dissembled quickly, and could be flown at
various altitudes. The above image depicts an army test flight
of a kite system designed by Samuel F. Perkins, a Boston based
kite maker and promoter. But even at this time, Perkins was
playing catch up with Europe's kite technology. "The American
effort was really sporadic," Scott