The Man
Francis Rogallo is credited with the concept of the “flexible” wing that led to the development of aerial sports like hang gliding and kite boarding. As a child growing up in California, Rogallo was fascinated by flight. He later earned a masters degree in aeronautical engineering at Stanford University. In 1935 he went to work for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the precursor to NASA. Rogallo wanted to design an aircraft that was inexpensive, easy to fly, and available to everyone.Rogallo and his wife Gertrude first developed and patented the “Flexkite” which was sold in some toy stores. In 1959, Werhner von Braun, then employed at NASA, visited Langley and saw Rogallo demonstrate one of his flexible wing gliders. Von Braun immediately saw its potential.
Over the next 10 years, NASA, the military, and many private contractors spent well over $100 million doing flexible wing research for all sorts of applications. During the ‘60’s Rogallo’s wing received a lot of attention, appearing on the covers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines. Parachute companies also took an interest and produced some Rogallo-like controllable, gliding canopies. The elite Golden Knights jumped with some early models. A group of Australians attached a frame to Rogallo’s wing allowing a pilot to hang from it and shift their weight to control it.
Rogallo and his wife retired to the Outer Banks in 1970. He was given his first commercially produced hang glider in 1974, and started flying on Jockey’s Ridge when he was 62. He was awarded the National Air and Space Museum award for Lifetime Achievement and both he and Gertrude were inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at the Wright Memorial. Rogallo is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and every year on the Outer Banks a kite festival is held in his honor.
The Documentary
“Wingman: The Francis Rogallo Story” is a one-hour television documentary that will tell Rogallo’s story through interviews with his family, friends and aviation experts. It will include archival film, video and photos of Rogallo and his experiments with the flexible wing. The documentary has been endorsed by PBS NC where it will likely premier before being distributed through PBS broadcast and streaming platforms.
The documentary is being produced, directed and written by award-winning documentary producer Clay Johnson who is based in North Carolina and has produced documentaries for Capitol Broadcasting Company and PBS NC. Johnson is an eight-time Emmy winner and also winner of the prestigious Alfred I duPont Columbia University Award for Journalism Excellence and the national Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.