rogallo

/ rəˈɡæləʊ /

noun

1. a flexible fabric delta wing, originally designed as a possible satellite retrieval vehicle but actually developed in the 1960s as the first successful hang-glider

Word History and Origins

Origin of rogallo¹

C20: after Francis M. Rogallo (born 1912), the US engineer who designed it

Example Sentences

By comparison, a Rogallo winged microlight aeroplane – a tiny single or two-seater aeroplane comprising a light frame and a small engine suspended below a hang gliding-style textile wing – would have a lift coefficient of between 2.2 and 2.7.

From Scientific American

Whiz kids of the day—John D. Bird, Francis Rogallo, John Becker, their names already circulated as being among the top in the discipline—smiled from a few rows back.

From Literature

Though James Bond used a Rogallo in his latest flick to swoop down on the bad guy, a far more spectacular flight was made recently when Jim Weir, 26, a gardener, and Burke Ewing, a 19-year-old student, both from San Diego, jumped from the top of 10,830-ft.

From Time Magazine Archive

To record the impact of a speck of interplanetary dust on a man or vehicle in space, Engineer Vernon Rogallo devised an instrument so sensitive that it registered the force of a single grain of salt dropped less than one-half of an inch.

From Time Magazine Archive