First kite-powered vehicle

Schoolmaster and inventor George Pocock (UK, 1774-1843) devised the first "horseless carriage" in the early 19th century in the form of a kite-drawn buggy which he named the charvolant. He patented the design in 1826. Despite some high-profile exposure (e.g., Pocock showed off the vehicle at Ascot in 1828 where it was examined by King George IV), the concept never particularly took off.

A driving force behind Pocock's invention was that at the turn of the 19th century, keeping horses had become very expensive, so he sought to find a form of transport that could harness wind power instead. Another advantage was that such an outlandish contraption was not subject to paying road taxes as tolls at that point were based on the number of horses.

The inspiration for the charlovant came to Pocock while demonstrating kites to his pupils on Durdham Down in Bristol. Two kites tied to a sledge were enough to pull his son across the snow. Scaling this up to a carriage, he conducted the first road test of charlovant on 8 January 1822, using one to take his family from Bristol to Marlborough. For short bursts, this wind-driven buggy could attain speeds of 25 mph (40 km/h).

Pocock expounded on the advantages of kite-drawn transportation in his book The Aeroplustic Art or Navigation in the Air by the use of Kites, or Buoyant Sails, published by W Wilson in 1827.