On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 08:53:20 -0800, Ron Garret
wrote in ::

it started spinning along its long axis
and flew quite a distance, and, more to the point, stayed aloft quite a
while.

Many thanks for a provocative subject and a well told story.

I can recall (from my youth, probably Precambrian by comparison)
vendors selling "kites" on the southern California coast that operated
on this principle. As I recall, they were about 24" long with vanes
about 3" wide and had endplate disks that extended beyond the vanes.
There was a tube through the long axis, and a string bridle connected
to the ends of a rod that ran through the tube. I seem to recall them
as being reflective. The vendor would set up shop with a dozen or so
flying.