A kite has two parts—wing and tether. The tether is tensed; the wing converts the tension to lift and drag by interacting with a stream of material; the kite flies or deflects away from the relative direction of the ambient stream's material. When the ambient material is air, an air kite is demonstrated. When the ambient material is soil, then a soil kite is demonstrated. Humans have given various names to soil kites; some soil anchors are soil kites.

Practical reasons for soil kites

The anchors that kite in soil are used to provide an anchor or mooring—static or mobile—that flies in the soil when tensed more. Many soil anchors have a de-powering line. Digging a hole to set an anchor disturbed and loosens soil that sometimes provides a too-easy exiting of the anchor which is contrary to the purpose of the anchor. To have the anchor's wing fly into undisturbed soil provides a better anchor for some applications. On soils that are loose sand, gravel, or loose dirt, a non-wheeled kiting ski board or land ski allows deflections or kiting effects used in tow sports (e.g., power kiting on land with non-wheeled landsailing board-skiis where the board kites gives resistance converted to fly the power kite); the land ski is a hybrid soil kite that works in both the soil and air media for its kiting action; chained farming or landscaping ploughs and scrapers are soil streamers but sometimes have a net lift/drag that is positive for the kiting circumstance. Land skiing. Tethered by towing vehicle, the soil ski kites flies over the soil.

Duck-bill earth anchor

After the Duck-bill earth anchor is driven into the ground with a drive rod, the drive rod is removed; then upon load locking the anchor the anchor head turns in the soil. The wing planes at a flight angle through the soil that was not disturbed by the drive hole.

Fluke anchor

Fluke designs (anchor

Anchor

An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...

) use large fluke surfaces to develop very large resistance to loads once they dig (lift downward as it flies into the soil) into the seabed. Although they have less ability to penetrate and are designed to reset rather than turn, their light weight makes them very popular. In dropping a fluke anchor, the flukes will sometimes kite in the water before kiting into the bottom soil. Once the fluke anchor kites into the bottom soil, considerable resistance builds in the anchoring line (soil-kite tether equivalent).

Kite and Skyhook anchors

These soil anchors have aerodynamic wings and are driven into the soil at low resistance; then when the wing is towed, the wing flies to a position that obtains high resistance.