This library gathers the images used throughout Rogallo Files: archive photographs, patent drawings, NASA documents and press clippings, from Jan Lavezzari's 1904 bi-conical glider to the NASA Paresev and the first Dickenson wings.
Each image carries a caption explaining what it shows and why it matters to the story. Some thumbnails group several pages of a single source; their caption tells you how many documents are shown out of the full set.
Click any image to see it full size, then use the arrows or your keyboard to browse the collection. The original documents are available in the PDF Documents section.
Image 000 : According to Associated Press on July 18,1963: “Francis M. Rogallo and his wife,Gertrude,are $35,000 richer today due to the invention which they hold over their heads… NASA administration made the award,the largest they have ever given to inventors.”
Image 100 : Francis Rogallo tells his story in a 1989 article for the German Federation (DHV) magazine.
Image 101 : Rogallo with his children flying his wing on a beach.
Image 102 : Rogallo's famous flexible kite: square and bi-cylindrical.
Image 200 : Close-up of G. D. Wanner's 1951 bi-conical kite patent.
Image 201 : Rogallo showing kids a bi-conical kite with many strings.
Image 202 : Typography has many rules that we tried to respect.
Image 203 : The heading of a NASA Technical Note.
Image 204 : Patents usually have many pages of drawings and words not easy to decipher.
Image 205 : Ease and serenity when flying one of the first Dickenson Wing.
Image 300 : Jan Lavezzari 1904 flight under his bi-conical wing.
Image 301 : A Rogallo-built propeller-driven car. Only the flexible wing is missing to fulfill his dream of a flying car. It will not happen.
Image 302 : NACA's logo.
Image 303 : Rogallo in 1949. We have no information on who he is addressing.
Image 304 : Rogallo's first patent: "Lateral Control for Aircraft".
Image 305 : Rogallo's second patent,the first for a "Flexible Kite".
Image 306 : Rogallo shows his Doplex Flexikite.
Image 307 : Rogallo's second patent for a "Flexible Kite".
Image 308 : The beginning of the Interference case between the Rogallos and William Allisson.
Image 309 : The end of the Interference case. The judgement goes against the Rogallos,who concede that Allisson is the inventor of the Flexible Kite.
Image 310 : Folded paper "fllexible" kite preceeded both Allisson and the Rogallos.
Image 311 : The first and only Rogallo's report for NACA.
Image 312 : Close-up of a Mylar Flexikite.
Image 313 : Drawings in Rogallo's report to NACA: how a flexible wing can carry loads. It will not happen.
Image 314 : Visions are not reality. Rogallo's flexible kite patents are very restrictive.
Image 315 : As shown on the Rogallo's Hall of Fame diploma,the Rogallos invented it all: modern hang glider and paraglider,and airplane spoilers and flaps.
Image 316 : As shown on the Rogallo's Hall of Fame diploma,the Rogallos invented it all: modern hang glider and paraglider,and airplane spoilers and flaps.
Image 400 : Testing parawing and Mercury capsule.
Image 401 : A Sputnik capsule.
Image 402 : Rogallo demonstrating a rigidified bi-conical wing in flight.
Image 403 : What the Paraglider Development Program was supposed to achieve.
Image 404 : Rogallo dreamt them,others made them.
Image 405 : Lee and Darrah 1911 patent a for bi-conical "Flying Machine".
Image 406 : The NASA Paresev,a very rigidified bi-conical wing.
Image 407 : C. E. Craigo et al. 1964 patent for "Flexible Wing Aircraft".
Image 408 : Rogallo 1968 patent for "Control Devices for Flexible Wing Aircraft".
Image 409 : The membrane is flexible,the structure is not.
Image 410 : None are flexible wings,but Rogallo claims them all.
Image 411 : The Rogallos receive the cash award.
Image 500 : The first letter sent by Rogallo to Dickenson.
Image 501 : Dickenson's answer to Rogallo's request for information.
Image 502 : NASA's research switches to parasail.
Image 503 : Rogallo 1970 patent for "Variable Area Flexible Wings".
Image 504 : Testing all kind of parawings,none flexible.
Image 505 : Some of the 102 references given by Rogallo in his 1972 presentation.
Image 506 : Rogallo announcing his retirement in a Low and Slow newsletter.
Image 507 : More visions that will never happen.
Image 508 : Will it fly? A model without future.
Image 600 : Trailer for a documentary yet to be released (as per June 2026).
Image 601 : One of the two models of the kitchen curtain kite.
Image 602 : Rogallo in the NASA documentary "From Kites to Wings".
Image 603 : Even John Dickenson calls Rogallo a "Doctor".
Image 604 : Hanging by the armpits for 25 minutes never happened!
Image 605 : The 2008 documentary in which Bill Bennet admits that his patent belongs truely to Dickenson.
Image 606 : On the front page of the most popular French weekly.
Image 607 : The Rogallo Class will last only one World championship.
Image 608 : Left to right. Rogallo,Dickenson and Moyes being interviewed.
Image 609 : Domina Jalbert testing his multi-cell ram-air wing.
Image 610 : In the 2021 documentary "Francis Rogallo – Inventor of the Flexible Wing".
Image 611 : On the Rogallo Foundation's website Home page.
Image 612 : Where 1948 Allisson's sled kite is said to be a 1960s NASA parawing.
Image 700 : John Dickenson getting ready to fly his wing.
Image 701 : Rogallo testing one of his never patented Flexikite.
Image 702 : Another vision (patented by Girard,not Rogallo) without future.
Image 703 : One of the two models of the kitchen curtain kite.
Image 704 : On the cover of a 1972 Popular Mechanics magazine.
Image 705 : October 21,1963. The Dickenson Glider starts its amazingly successful career.
Image 800 : No parawings,no parasails in today’s NASA’s capsule’s recovering system. Just conventional round parachutes.
Image 801 : May 2026 - Artemis comes back from around the moon and touchdown under conventional parachutes.
Image 802 : The modern hang glider and paraglider today.
Image 900 : Left to right. Rod Fuller,Pat Crowe and John Dickenson in Grafton,Australia,in front of a memorial to their feats,on the 50th anniversary of their first flights.
Image 901 : Ron Nickel next to Graeme Henderson,who his holding Ron's 1964 Dickenson Glider.
Image 902 : The FAI Silver Medal.
Image 1000 : All documents as filed on Stephane's computer.
