Helikite aerial photography – a versatile means of unmanned, radio controlled, low‐altitude aerial archaeology

Abstract During the past 100 years, various devices have been developed and applied in order to acquire archaeologically useful aerial imagery from low altitudes (e.g. balloons, kites, poles). This paper introduces Helikite aerial photography (HAP), a new form of close range aerial photography suitable for site or defined area photography, based on a camera suspended from a Helikite: a combination of both a helium balloon and kite wings. By largely overcoming the drawbacks of conventional kite‐ and balloon‐based photography, HAP allows for a very versatile, remotely controlled approach to low‐altitude aerial photography (LAAP). In addition to a detailed outline of the whole HAP system, its working procedure and possible improvements, some of the resulting imagery is shown to demonstrate the usefulness of HAP for several archaeological applications. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.