Building the MythThe Latest Documentaries
We are amazed how deceits and lies keep fooling so many people. Our determination to deconstruct the Rogallo myth is only strengthened; the truth always wins in the end.
Francis Rogallo – Inventor of the Flexible Wing
Current TV – 2021
This 6-minute documentary is presented by “Courtesy of the Outer Banks History Center”. It is a good summary of the Rogallo myth. (btm-26) It shows a modern hang glider, then a multi-cell ram-air parachute.
Voiceover – “A hang glider soaring above Jockey Ridge is a common sight in the Outer Banks, but hang gliders and paragliders, Sun kites and modern parachutes would not have been possible without the invention of the Rogallo wing.”
The documentary goes through Rogallo’s history: childhood dreams, aeronautic diploma, first curtain kite, first patents, NACA, NASA where Rogallo is “one of the top engineers”, retirement in the Outer Banks… Rogallo is pictured with parawings and parasails, an aircraft wing with spoilers and flaps extended, which are all being presented as his inventions.
The triangular curtain kite is shown.
Voiceover – “At home with his wife Gertrude, the idea of a flexible wing took shape as Gertrude sewed the concept into reality. The first wing was made from a flowered chintz kitchen curtain. In 1948, Francis and Gertrude Rogallo filed for a patent for their flexible kite.”
Billy Vaughn, from the Kitty Hawk Kites company, explains Rogallo’s dreams of popular aviation and how he saw his dream of man flying realised in Kitty Hawk.
Voiceover – “There is no place on the planet where there is more federation of flexible wings seen regularly. There is hang gliding on Jockey Ridge, of course, it’s iconic. But one of the newest ones is kiteboard kites. There are more flexible wings. And there are current paragliders that fly around. And the modern Sun kites. All that stuff comes from flexible wing technology. So this place and Francis Rogallo’s connection to it is pretty special.”
An ode to the glory of Rogallo, who is the father of everything, including the multi-cell ram-air wings and the “modern Sun kites”. The curtain kite shown is said to be the first wing, and they dishonestly claim that a patent was filed for it. That Rogallo’s “flexible wing technology” went nowhere is ignored. The fact that the patent shown isn’t for the curtain kite that they are showing does not concern them; these people are not concerned with facts.
We wondered about the modern Sun kite. Sun Kites is a brand specialising in kites for children; they make all kinds of shapes: diamond, delta, and many animal kites. Many different animal, diamond, and delta-shaped kites were patented long before Rogallo’s first kite patent. e.g.:
They are certainly not Rogallo’s legacy.
This is a self-serving sermon preached by Vaughn to promote Kitty Hawk Kites, a company that sells kites and gives hang gliding lessons.
Wingman
Clay Johnson – 2025
The 2-minute trailer is highlighted on The Rogallo Foundation website: “Proud of its support of this exciting project”. (btm-03)
Voiceover and interviewed people state:
“Francis was a very visionary person. He liked watching the wind blow on Jockey’s Ridge.
’Rogallo basically taught himself to fly on Jockey’s Ridge. He did his last two flights on his 80th birthday. He loved it, just like everybody.
’Mr Rogallo choosing to fly on his 80th birthday was quintessential Rogallo.
’He thought it wasn’t fair that only millionaires in the military had access to aviation. He thought everyone should be able to fly.
’Rogallo’s invention is a completely flexible lifting surface, and maybe foldable, so that people could carry it easily or store it in their garage.
’The significance in Rogallo’s mind was huge, but it took a long time for it to catch on. The publicity around flexible wings in the magazines led people all over the world to think they could build one.
’Rogallo didn’t invent the hang glider, he invented the flexible wing concept that evolved into hang gliding and paragliding, and all those other wings.
’A lot of people don’t know that he was the source of these things: stunt kites flying, the kites we used for kite boarding, sport parachuting.
’Mr Rogallo’s work and his invention was really the origin of all that.
’He was like royalty, you know, in the hang gliding community. I mean, he was a god.
’This is the man who brought so much joy to so many people, you know. By providing a way for them to fly.
’He had the wherewithal and the intelligence to create something that allowed all of us to fly like we had all dreamed of.”
Historical facts are disregarded. Rogallo is God, the provider of happiness and fulfilled dreams. The believers will be ecstatic.