Before NASA 1912-1958The Chiringa

“Space-vehicle design gives you an exciting sports kite. The kite, invented by NASA engineer Francis Rogallo, is so different that he had no trouble obtaining several patents on it. The inventor has given his permission to readers to build their own. But this approval is for personal use only; you can’t make them for sale.” Plans and instructions are included.

In the next October issue, in the Readers Talk Back, Dr. Enrique Senra wrote: “I was amazed to read in Build Your Own Reentry Kite that the ‘Chiringa’ is going into space. The Chiringa is not a new invention, but a very popular kite among poor Cuban children, who cannot afford to buy a regular one. As early as 1928, I remember making Chiringas and flying them. I hope Popular Science will give proper credit in the space program to a humble and inexpensive toy that gave happiness and fun to thousands of poor kids who couldn’t dream that they were playing with a future space reentry vehicle.” (doc-23)

In his 1976 The Complete Book of Kite and Kite Flying, Will Yolen, then President of the International Kite Flyers Association, confirmed the existence of the Chiringa. “One of the greatest of the new finds is the paper kite. Not the traditional paper kite mounted on sticks, but the folded paper kite that has no wooden or other stiffening materials to hold it rigid. It is the father and mother of the nonrigid kite and even precedes Francis Rogallo’s flexible kite. Such a paper kite is the Chiringa, a popular toy in places like Puerto Rico where every kid seems to know how to make one of scraps of paper and thread, even though he may never have heard of the science of aerodynamics. I first witnessed these little kites in Central Park in New York City. The children made them of squares cut from newspapers or wrapping paper attached to lines of sewing thread. I had presumed that my Rogallo-designed flexible kite was the only nonrigid kite in the sky over Central Park, but I soon learned that the hordes of paper Chiringas floating nearby were also flexible kites. (doc-24)

So neither Rogallo nor Allison were the original “inventors” of the flexible kite concept. Along with the Chiringa, both Lawrence Hargreaves in Australia, and Captain B.F.S. Baden-Powell in Britain, are reputed to have experimented with flexible wings. We should never forget that the bi-conical wing design has roots lost in the mists of time, somewhere in the multicultural kite traditions of the Asia/Pacific region.