A kite must necessarily be attached to the ground through a rope. Latch
a kite to the ground and let the wind make it rise is exactly like
running with the rope in your hand and make the kite rise when there is
no wind. The kite is like an airplane and the row is like its motor.
Should the rope be released the kite falls or at least glides toward
the ground.
If you want a glider to remain in the air thanks to the wind then you
must find some special places where the air is rising. Such rising air
can be due to zones on the ground overheated by the sun or to wind
passing over a hill. These zones are always localized. If you want to
stay in the air then you must remain above the zone or glide from one
zone toward another zone.
The proposal of this text is to latch a kite not to the ground but to
the mass of air below it, where the wind moves differently. That way it
would be taken along by the wind just like a hot air balloon. It would
stay in the air without touching the ground.
Sailors and meteorologists know that fact: at different heights the air
moves differently. Two superposed layers of air move in different
directions and with different speeds. Between a few meters above the
ground and a few tens of meters the speed of the air is most often very
different.
So if an efficient kite is used (say the shape of a glider) and it is
latched to a big coarse lightweight mass below it (say a toy beach
ball) through a rope of a few tens of meters, the coarse mass will
be pulled by its lower layer of air away from the kite. That will make
the kite rise and pull the coarse mass upwards. If they rise too much
the difference between the air layers will decrease and they will stop
rising.
Launched above the sea, where there is always wind and the surface
presents no obstacles, such a kite should travel huge distances.
Should the wind slow down, the coarse mass will land and the water yet
the kite will stay in the air awaiting the speed of the wind increases
back. Probably a kite shape can be designed that can land on the water
too. It would land if there is no more wind at all and take off back
again afterwards.