At NASA 1958-1964From Deceptions to Lies
In his November 1962 technical note on Flexible Wing Research and Development, Rogallo wrote:
This paper reviews flexible-wing research and development projects recently completed or now in progress by NASA, or by industry under contract to NASA or the Department of Defense. When I was invited to present a paper on the subject “Rogallo Wing”, I assumed that your program committee had in mind what has been called the “Paraglider”, “Parawing”, “Flexikite”, “Flex-wing”, “Flight-sail”, etc., or more broadly, the flexible-wing concept. Because nearly all of our publicised flexible-wing research and development has pertained to only one of the many possible configurations, the impression may sometimes be given that we are not considering other configurations or that they do not fall within the flexible-wing concept. To emphasise that this is not so, figure 1 of reference 1 ([doc]rre-02[/doc]) is repeated herein, and attention is called to the two-lobe, single curvature configuration on which so much work has now been done simply because that configuration was arbitrarily chosen for a beginning.
The Lies
- The Paraglider, Parawing, Flex-wing, Flexikite and Flight-sail have nothing to do with the Rogallos’ Flexible Kite patents.
- The flexible-wing concept was thought of by William M. Allison, before the Rogallos. And by many others before Allison.
- The wing configurations were not chosen “arbitrarily” but because they worked (bi-conical for parawings, multi-lobed for parasails) while Rogallos’ patented designs (bi-cylindrical and single-arched) did not.
- Parawings and parasails were based on patents that were not Rogallo’s.
Rogallo knew this. He deliberately misled NASA by claiming that everything in the Paraglider Development Program, even “other configurations” being considered, was a “Rogallo Wing”.
When Rogallo describes his visions and mistakes them for reality, we call it “Rogallo’s basic deception” (see previous chapter). But when Rogallo distorts reality deliberately, we have no choice but to call it “Rogallo’s lie”.
Unfortunately, it will not be his only lie. Many will follow.
The 1975 NASA documentary we mentioned in our Foreword, From Kites to Wings, is one of the most brutal. Standing in front of one of the modern hang gliders that now tens of thousands of people are flying, he states without blinking that it is his invention, not an accident, the result of more than two decades of purposeful research before coming up with this design. And this was 11 years after he had received ten pages of plans and two pages of instructions from the inventor of the glider, John Dickenson, showing how to build the glider. And when all he had done with those plans was to hide them from everyone who was interested in building hang gliders. (This will be described in the next chapter.)
Almost Everybody Is Fooled
Rogallo’s lies will fool almost everybody for many decades.
Almost… They were not accepted by the engineers and scientists who wrote about the “so-called” Rogallo Wing, who told of seeing Rogallo standing behind them in the wind tunnel, taking notes on their work. Those who did not reference Rogallo’s patents or reports when filing their patents. Those who said that Lilienthal inspired them, not Rogallo.
Today, Rogallo’s lies are still the reality accepted in most stories about the development of ultralight aviation. Pages and pages of references when you search his name on the Internet.
All are repeating the lie that everything is a Rogallo Wing. All are building the Rogallo Myth that we are deconstructing here.
The Rogallos revelled in the reality that they created. For it, they got money in the form of a $35,000 cash award described in the next sub-chapter – and boundless fame. They travelled the world and were honoured everywhere they went.
During this time, in Australia, John Dickenson, the true inventor of the modern hang glider, and his mates who developed and flew it with him, Rod Fuller and Pat Crowe, were left in obscurity. Their story will be told in another book.