Francis Rogallo

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In 1948 Francis Melwin Rogallo and Gertrude Rogallo filed a patent for a flexible winged kite. [link]. In the 1960s and 1970s Francis Rogallo, at NASA, furthered this design into the Rogallo wing glider, which was to serve as a re-entry vehicle for space flights to the moon. While parachutes where chosen for this the Rogallo wing represented the birth of modern hang gliding. As of 2003 Rogallo had recent designs for kites.

Francis Rogallo currently lives in Southern Shores, NC, near Kitty Hawk, the birthplace of aviation. Thousands of people have taken hang gliding lessons in Rogallo wing type hang gliders at Jockey's Ridge State Park, an enormous sand dune which is located five miles from the site of the first powered aircraft flight. Mr. Rogallo can frequently be seen at the park.

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