History
Rogallo had been interested in the flexible wing since 1945. He and his wife built and flew kites as a hobby and, since they could not find official backing for the wing (including at Rogallo's employer NACA), carried out experiments in their own time. By the end of 1948 they had two working designs using a flexible wing - a kite (which they called "Flexi-Kite") and a gliding parachute (which they later referred to as a "paraglider"). Rogallo and his wife received a patent on a "V-shaped" flexible wing in March 1951. Selling the Flexi-kite as a toy helped to finance their work and publicize the design.
Read more about this topic: Rogallo Wing
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)