At NASA 1964-19721970 — Rogallo Leaves NASA

About a year ago, it became evident that the NASA would not be able to continue this work as it had been doing, and since I was a few years past voluntary retirement age, I decided to retire and try to find other ways to continue my Rogallo wing research and development. I have found this difficult on an individual private basis and have decided that little progress will be made unless more people can be found to participate and support the effort.

At 58 years old, Rogallo is a young retiree. There is no evidence that he continued his “Rogallo wing research and development.” Nobody offered to finance his research, even though a massive investment was made to manufacture Dickenson Gliders globally, expanding free flying to historic proportions. Rogallo was not involved in any part of it.

A few weeks later, he sent another letter to Low & Slow. It was published in the first issue of 1972.

A large number (about 20) patents related to flexible wings have been taken out in my name, solely or jointly with others. The government owns two and has the right to use most of the remainder, although I retain the non-government rights.

The patents apply to both stiffened and completely flexible wings. I have had license agreements in the past with a few companies, including the Irvin Parachute people of Gardena, Calif., but none of these licenses are active at present; that is, I am not now getting any income from inventions…

We would like to get some monetary return, but this has always been a secondary consideration; so I guess we can’t complain. So far, I don’t think anyone else is getting rich at our expense.

Rogallo will later claim consistently that he never made any money from his “inventions”, except for the NASA award:

I never really made any money from my research and patent, except for a 35,000-dollar prize that NASA awarded me in 1963 (I gave most of it back to the government in the form of taxes !) and a few royalties for my smaller play kites. Many years later, two hang glider manufacturers offered me some money but I refused. Why would they? I had been paid nearly all my life to fulfil my passion. I couldn’t ask for more ! (doc-13)

Of the “few companies”, Rogallo named only Irvin Parachute. Irvin built a Delta II Parawing used by the army parachutist teams of the USA (Golden Knights) and Great Britain (Red Devils). (ana-09) They flew the prototypes in 1967 and the production models in 1969. The Irvin Delta II Parawing enjoyed a brief period of popularity in the sport in the early 1970s. At the time, ram-air canopies still had to be reduced in bulk and gain the reliability and performance that would see them dominate the skydiving world during the 1970s and until today.

What was the “license agreement” between Irvin and Rogallo? We could find no trace of it. The Delta II has nothing to do with any of Rogallo’s patents, but a strong connection with Everett’s patent, whose references include two of Jalbert's patents but do not include Rogallo. (pin-28)