Did Benjamin Franklin really fly his Kite?

As part of school work, I had to do some research on kites, and this included Benjamin Franklin and his inventions/ kite flying.

Any good American will know that Benjamin Franklin was a famous inventer and is now a founding father. All good and well, but surely his most famous experiment was the one where he flew his kite into a thunderstorm, some thought he was mad, and others didn't really think much of it. In all, he discovered that Lightning is a form of Electricity, he proved this by using an insulated line when he flew his kite. This stopped him from getting electrocuted and dying.

However, when he reached out to the key (I forgot to mention that, oops!) the negetive charges still left in the key shocked him, thus proving that lightning is electricity. BUUUUTTTT, Tom Tucker wrote a book named Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and His Electric Kite Hoax, Tucker believes that Benjamin Franklin hoaxed the experiment to get revenge on a certain member of The Royal Society of London, who pageurized (sp?), ridculed and ignored many of his letters/ inventions.

This is very likely, as if you follow Tom's reasoning, Benjamin did have a backstory of being and incredible Jokester.

That over, please discuss.

 

Okay, so if you don't understand that, read this.

Tucker claims that he built a kite according to Franklin's description: "It never got off the ground at windspeed 15-20 miles per hour." The Mythbusters of TV fame also built a kite according to Franklin's specifications and it too failed to fly.

 

Proabalies, but it couldn't have been uch faster and therefore it would be impossible to get as high as to turn it into a lightning rod.