Charles Richards (NASA engineer) explained

Charles Richard was a design engineer, who designed the collapsible four-tube Rogallo wing used in the experimental NASA Paresev glider.^[1] The wing configuration he created was used for manned hung-pilot kite-gliders and was to be found copied only with slight ornamental variation in a decade of hang gliders.^[2] Richards was of the Flight Research Center's Vehicle and System Dynamics Branch. The four-beamed wing folded from the nose plate; one of the beams was the spreader beam that kept the flexible-wing's sweep.^[3] Those in the following decade copying the Charles Richard wing configuration expanded kiting, hang gliding, ultralight, and trike flight.

Timeline

• 1961 December : Charles Richard is given a directive from NASA's Paul Bikle to build quickly a cheap kite glider that could be used to give pilots practice in flying in free flight using simple weight-shifting that would change the attitude of the wing relative to the hung position of the pilot and payload.^[4]
• 1962 February 12 : Charles Richard and his team completed a first kite-glider that achieved obtaining an FAA registration. Many versions followed first flight tests.^[5]
• 2004 Charles Richard name was included in the space Stardust (spacecraft) chip. .^[6]

Notes and References

1. Book: Richard Hallion. On the Frontier: Flight Research at Dryden, 1946-1981. 14 February 2021. 1984. Scientific and Technical Information Branch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 138.
2. Web site: NASA Dryden Paresev Photo Collection . 2008-10-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080921113223/http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Gallery/Photo/Paresev/index.html . 2008-09-21 . NASA Dryden Paresev Photo Collection
3. Charles Richard and his key designing is noted in the 407 page online-available book On the Frontier at https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4303.pdf
4. Web site: Aviation News Magazine - the Transall C.160 . 2010-01-09 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070927120105/http://www.aviation-news.co.uk/Parasev.html . 2007-09-27 . Aviation Journal's Aviation News, The Rogallo Parasev: A revolution in flying wings
5. Web site: Archived copy . 2008-10-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110520151645/http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/nasaNAS~2~2~6690~108312%3A?printerFriendly=1 . 2011-05-20 . NASA Images Detail View
6. Web site: Stardust - NASA's Comet Sample Return Mission.