Before NASA 1912-19581952 — Rogallos’ Second "Flexible Kite" Patent
On November 17, 1952, Gertrude and Francis Rogallo filed their second and last patent application: G. S. Rogallo et al. – 2,751,172. (rpa-03) Further patents will be filed by Francis M. Rogallo alone, or Francis M. Rogallo et al.
The patent was rejected (July 31, 1953), amended (January 11, 1954), rejected (March 11, 1954), amended (May 4, 1954), rejected (June 13, 1955), amended (November 20, 1955), finally granted (June 19, 1956).
The Rogallos filed their patent application in 1952, in an obvious attempt to block William Allison’s patent for his Flexible Kite. The Rogallos only succeeded in delaying Allison’s Patent until 1956. (rva-01)
The Rogallos revealed their intention in an April 1954 affidavit. They stated that “they experimented with the flying of kites in the summer of 1948” and that their second patent was a follow-up of their first patent: “Our work continued until we felt we had a suitable commercial structure, which was shown to various people in 1950 and 1951.”
An “Interference” procedure followed. It was filed in June 1954 in the US Patent Office in Washington. There was a perceived conflict between Allison’s patent and the Rogallos’ patents because they both had used the same name: Flexible Kite.
In the end, the Rogallos lost the case, and in April 1955, they conceded that Allison had invented a flexible kite before them.
We have not seen any pictures of this second Rogallo kite being flown. We found no evidence that it was demonstrated, commercialised, or cloned. Kites based on Allison’s kite will later be known as the "sled kites", and copies and evolutions of it will be sold by the hundreds of thousands. (doc-26)