Rogallo wing

NASA Paresev, a Rogallo flexible wing tested by NASA for spacecraft landing research.

The Rogallo wing is a flexible type of wing. In 1948, Francis Rogallo, a NASA engineer, and his wife Gertrude Rogallo, invented a self-inflating flexible wing they called the Parawing, also known after them as the "Rogallo Wing" and flexible wing.[1] NASA considered Rogallo's flexible wing as an alternative recovery system for the Mercury and Gemini space capsules, and for possible use in other spacecraft landings, but the idea was dropped from Gemini in 1964 in favor of conventional parachutes.

  1. ^ "Rogallo Wing -the story told by NASA". History.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2012-12-23.