The Gemini paraglider / Rogallo Wing

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5056/1

Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 1): Rogallo Wings, the Paresev, and crashes in the desert
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, September 8, 2025

In the early 1960s, NASA had an extensive flight test program to develop a land touchdown capability for the Gemini spacecraft. NASA and its contractors conducted hundreds of test flights, crashing both unmanned and piloted test vehicles. Several NASA test pilots were injured. In the early 1960s the engineers thought that they had a solution, a radical new type of parachute-like device known as a Rogallo Wing. The only problem was that nobody knew if it worked.

There was a good reason to develop the capability to land Gemini on land. Gemini’s predecessor, Mercury, splashed down at sea and this was expensive, requiring a fleet of ships and aircraft. Gemini’s program managers reasoned that if their spacecraft could come down on land, the recovery crew could be reduced to a few helicopters and a tracking plane, and maybe a truck to pick up the capsule. But there were two problems with this. First was the fact that landing on a hard surface increased the G-loads to the crew and could be potentially dangerous. The second was that land could be populated, and nobody wanted a Gemini spacecraft to smash through the roof of a Nevada family’s house. Any system for landing the spacecraft on land had to be both gentle and precise.

In the early 1960s the engineers thought that they had a solution, a radical new type of parachute-like device known as a Rogallo Wing. The only problem was that nobody knew if it worked. That’s why NASA began an extensive test program. It did not always go well.

[Blackstar]

[Moonwatcher]

Thank you for sharing this article. Brings back memories of building a Gemini model with the landing skids. 

[DaveJ576]

Great article. Well written. I am looking forward to part 2. I have read conflicting information in the past of just how close to success they got with the paraglider.

If this had worked, imagine Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon whooping it up as they bring Gemini 11 into Edwards or the Skid Strip at Canaveral. 😁

[DaveJ576]

In a related question, which came first, the decision to use ejection seats on Gemini because of the hypergolics in the Titan, or because of the need to have a backup in case the Rogallo wing failed on short final?

[Blackstar]

In a related question, which came first, the decision to use ejection seats on Gemini because of the hypergolics in the Titan, or because of the need to have a backup in case the Rogallo wing failed on short final?

I'm pretty sure the ejection seats were included in the design from the beginning. There was no way to keep something so heavy out of the design until they had more experience with the wing.

[Blackstar]

Great article. Well written. I am looking forward to part 2. I have read conflicting information in the past of just how close to success they got with the paraglider.

If this had worked, imagine Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon whooping it up as they bring Gemini 11 into Edwards or the Skid Strip at Canaveral. 😁

I've split it into three parts because I have a lot of photos, some that have probably not been seen before. This was an extensive test program, with three different phases, and there are good photographs from all the phases. I'm going to post them in this thread too.

[nicp]

Great article with interesting information I had not previously seen.

[Vonbrown1912]

Ryan Aeronautical had huge plans for paragliders, including Saturn S-IB stages but also as an add-on to many planes, probably to make them STOL by lowering their landing speeds.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ryan-rogallo-wing-concepts.8142/

[catdlr]

No Spoiler review,
Part 2 is published;

Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 2): Parachutes, paragliders, and more crashes in the desert
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, September 15, 2025

It's a great read, well-documented, and I'm looking forward to the third part. If Space is hard, para-sailing a capsule is harder.  I enjoyed my coffee reading it, but I'll let Blackstar have the honor of posting it on his thread.  Well done.

The attached picture made me laugh. I've seen way too many Work Fail videos on YT and saw these two guys at the very top of these tall step ladders. I guess OSHA rules weren't around in those days.

[Blackstar]

https://thespacereview.com/article/5059/1

Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 2): Parachutes, paragliders, and more crashes in the desert
by Dwayne A. Day
Monday, September 15, 2025

In the early 1960s, NASA was undertaking an extensive series of tests in the Mojave Desert to develop the capability to bring its new Gemini spacecraft to a gentle landing on the ground rather than at sea. In 1961 and 1962, test pilots and at least one astronaut began flying a flimsy-looking craft called the Paresev to evaluate a new type of wing—called a Rogallo Wing, or paraglider—that could be folded up inside a compartment on Gemini. It would then be deployed at high altitude to unfold and provide lift and controllability to enable Gemini to land on a dry lake bed. After the Paresev I was destroyed in a crash, NASA developed the Paresev I-A, which also occasionally crashed. At this time, NASA fully intended to land Gemini using the paraglider technology—if it could be made to work (see “Gemini’s wing and a prayer (part 1): Rogallo Wings, the Paresev, and crashes in the desert,” The Space Review, September 8, 2025.)

The desert tests of the Paresev were not the only activities conducted in what became an extensive development program. In March 1962, test pilot Milt Thompson went to North American Aviation in Downey, California, and flew a Gemini parawing simulator. He maintained close ties with the other aspects of the research project.[1]

[JAFO]

I'd be curious how they came up with the size of the wing for the Parasev I. It just looks too small, especially when compared to the proportions of the successful, foot launched wings and awkwardly mounted on top of the "cockpit".


Here's an interesting thread on another forum about Thomas Purcell and his early designs. Doesn't look like there's an image of the wing Neil and Milt would have flown, most likely the Flightsail glider, but it was probably similar to these in the thread.   https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/flight-dynamics-inc-thomas-h-purcell-designs.17044/


And another article  https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2016/07/26/hang-glider-adapted-water-use-1962

[LittleBird]

Also reminded of this wonderful National Geographic artwork. What could possibly go wrong ?

[nicp]

The Space Review articles are always great, love this pair too!
Marvellous stuff.

[Blackstar]

I'd be curious how they came up with the size of the wing for the Parasev I. It just looks too small, especially when compared to the proportions of the successful, foot launched wings and awkwardly mounted on top of the "cockpit".

There were several different wings. You can see them in the photographs.

Also, it was the parEsev for some reason. E, not A. I kept tripping over that.

[JAFO]

I'd be curious how they came up with the size of the wing for the Parasev I. It just looks too small, especially when compared to the proportions of the successful, foot launched wings and awkwardly mounted on top of the "cockpit".

There were several different wings. You can see them in the photographs.

Also, it was the parEsev for some reason. E, not A. I kept tripping over that.

I didn't notice that. Neat.

[Blackstar]

The testing to develop the paraglider was done in three phases:

Phase I -- Paresev, also ground tow tests (towing the wing behind a truck) and some wind tunnel tests

Phase II -- Unmanned drop tests including deploying the wing at altitude and then lower level tests of controlling it for landing. Also some wind tunnel tests.

Phase III -- The Tow Test Vehicle of a pilot inside a craft that looked like a Gemini, using a paraglider wing.

These phases undoubtedly overlapped a bit, although I don't know by how much. I have not seen a complete listing of all flight tests, but they did hundreds of tests with the Paresev, because for a lot of it they were just towing a manned kite behind a truck or a plane.

The early wings had metal struts. But what they needed was a wing that could be packed into a tight space and then deployed, and this was accomplished with a wing that had inflatable struts. Those struts would be inflated with nitrogen. I don't know how they did that in the air, but it must have been some kind of pressure tank that opened and filled up the struts.

By the end of the program they had made a lot of progress on the different key requirements such as deployment and controllability. But I think that every phase of flight remained rather dicey. It could work, but it would not always work as planned at high reliability rates. I have my doubts that it ever could have been made highly reliable.

[JAFO]

There was a saying in the early days of hang gliding: never fly higher than you were willing to fall. Truck towing, maybe. But the thought of towing the Paresev behind a Gooney Bird is a whole other form of glorious insanity.

[Blackstar]

I'd be curious how they came up with the size of the wing for the Parasev I. It just looks too small, especially when compared to the proportions of the successful, foot launched wings and awkwardly mounted on top of the "cockpit".

There were several different wings. You can see them in the photographs.

Also, it was the parEsev for some reason. E, not A. I kept tripping over that.

I didn't notice that. Neat.

Just figured something out: PaReseV for PAraglider RESEarch Vehicle.

[Kyra's kosmos]

Here is one I rescued from a defunct vertical file in the 1980's - hopefully now it will live on in the digital age.