Francis Rogallo

1912–2009

After World War II, aeronautical engineer Francis Rogallo became interested in devising a flexible, ultralight aircraft so inexpensive that anyone could own one. So his wife, Gertrude, helped him sew a chintz kitchen curtain into a triangular shape resembling a combination parachute and boat sail. It was an early version of the “Rogallo wing,” the basis of modern hang gliding and paragliding, a hobby currently enjoyed by some 50,000 people in the U.S. annually.

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Rogallo, a Stanford graduate, perfected the concept at home, said The New York Times. He used “table fans and cardboard to erect wind tunnels.” Rogallo hoped his wing could carry payloads and even propel vehicles. “But nobody was interested.” So he marketed his invention as a toy, calling it the “Flexikite.” Then, in 1957, when Sputnik galvanized America’s interest in space, NASA seized on Rogallo’s invention, “now called the paraglider,” as a means “to bring space capsules back to earth” and paid him $35,000 to develop the concept. Although NASA ultimately favored “the old-fashioned parachute,” flying buffs became fascinated by paraglider news in aviation magazines. “In Australia, people began to think the new wing might be just the thing for flying behind boats, while adventurous Americans imagined jumping off hills.” In October 1961, an aeronautical engineer named Barry Palmer did just that, taking to the skies near Sacramento in the first hang glider flight.

After retiring in 1970, Rogallo moved to Kitty Hawk, N.C., the site of the Wright brothers’ airplane triumphs. There, at age 62, he began gliding for the first time, and did so for the next 18 years.