Flying disc

A Frisbee made by Wham-O

Flying discs[1] are disc-shaped gliders which are generally plastic and roughly 20 to 25 centimeters (8–10 inches) in diameter, with a lip. The shape of the disc, an airfoil in cross-section, allows it to fly by generating lift as it moves through the air while rotating.

The term Frisbee, often used uncapitalized generically to describe all flying discs (as Kleenex may be used to describe all types of tissues) is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company. Such use is not encouraged by the company, whose concern is that the use of the name in generic fashion may put the trademark in jeopardy.

Flying discs are thrown and caught for free-form recreation and as part of many different flying disc games. A wide range of flying disc variants are available commercially. Disc golf discs are usually smaller but denser and are tailored for particular flight profiles to increase/decrease stability and distance. Disc dog sports use relatively slow flying discs made of more pliable material to better resist a dog's bite and prevent injury to the dog. Flying rings are also available which typically fly significantly farther than any traditional flying disc. There are illuminated discs meant for night time play that use phosphorescent plastic, or battery powered light emitting diodes. There are also discs that whistle when they reach a certain velocity in flight.

Contents

History

A person throwing a flying disc; Mackinaw City, Michigan

The clay target used in trapshooting, almost identical to a flying disc in shape, was designed in the 19th century.

Walter Frederick Morrison discovered a market for the modern day flying disc [2] in 1938 when he and his future wife Lucile were offered 25¢ for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth to each other on the beach in Santa Monica, California. "That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for 5 cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well, there was a business", Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot in 2007. They continued their business until World War II when he served in the army Air Forces flying P-47s and spent time as a prisoner of war. Upon his return from the war, Morrison sketched a design for an aerodynamically-improved flying disc he dubbed the Whirlo-Way. By 1948 after design modifications and experimentation with several prototypes, Morrison and his business partner Warren Franscioni began producing the first plastic discs. They re-named their invention Flyin-Saucer in the wake of reported UFO sightings. "We worked fairs, demonstrating it", Morrison told the Virginian-Pilot. "That's where we learned we could sell these things, because people ate them up." Morrison and Franscioni ended their partnership in 1950. After further design refinements in 1955, Morrison began producing a new disc, which he called the Pluto Platter. He sold the rights to Wham-O in 1957, the company named the disc the Frisbee and the following year, Morrison was awarded US Design Patent 183,626 for his flying disc. "I thought the name was a horror. Terrible", he told the Press-Enterprise of Riverside in 2007. In 1982 Morrison told Forbes magazine he had received about $2 million in royalty payments and said "I wouldn't change the name of it for the world".[3]

In 1957,[4] Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr decided to stimulate sales by giving the discs the additional brand name "Frisbee" (pronounced "FRIZ'-bee") after hearing that East Coast college students were calling the Pluto Platter by that name, the term "Frisbee" coming from the name of the New England pie manufacturer Frisbie Pie Company[5]. The man who was behind the Frisbee's phenomenal success however was "Steady" Ed Headrick, hired in 1964 as Wham-O's new General Manager and Vice President in charge of marketing. Headrick soon redesigned the Pluto Platter by reworking the rim thickness and top design, creating a more controllable disc that could be thrown accurately.[6]

Sales soared for the toy, which was marketed as a new sport. In 1964, the first "professional" model went on sale. Headrick patented the new design as the Frisbee patent, highlighting the “Rings of Headrick” and marketed and pushed the professional model Frisbee and "Frisbee" as a sport. (US Patent 3,359,678).[7]

Headrick, commonly known as the "Father of Disc Sports",[8] later founded "The International Frisbee Association (IFA)" and began establishing standards for various sports using the Frisbee such as Distance, Freestyle and Guts. Upon his death Headrick was cremated and, in accordance with his final requests, his ashes were molded into memorial Frisbees and given to family and close friends.[9]

Flying disc games

  • Crosbee
  • Disc dog
  • Disc golf
  • Dodge disc
  • Durango boot
  • Double disc court
  • Flutterguts
  • Freestyle
  • Fricket (a.k.a. disc cricket, cups, Suzy sticks, crispy wickets)
  • Friskee
  • Goaltimate
  • Guts
  • Hot box
  • Kan-jam
  • Polish horseshoes
  • Schtick
  • Ultimate

Physics

A person catching a flying disc

Lift is generated in primarily the same way as a traditional asymmetric airfoil, that is, by accelerating upper airflow such that a pressure difference gives rise to a lifting force. Small ridges near the leading edge act as turbulators, reducing flow separation by forcing the airflow to become turbulent after it passes over the ridges.

The rotating flying disc has a vertical angular momentum vector, stabilizing its attitude gyroscopically. Depending on the cross-sectional shape of the airfoil the amount of lift generated by the front and back parts of the disc may be unequal. If the disc were not spinning this would tend to make it pitch. When the disc is spinning, however, such a torque would cause it to precess about the roll axis, causing its trajectory to curve to the left or the right. Most discs are designed to be aerodynamically stable so that this roll is self-correcting for a fairly broad range of velocities and rates of spin. Many disc golf discs, however, are intentionally designed to be unstable. Higher rates of spin lead to better stability and, for a given rate of spin, there is generally a range of velocities that are stable.

Even a slight deformation in a disc (called a "Taco," as extreme cases look like a taco shell) can cause adverse affects when throwing long range. It can be observed by holding the disc horizontally at eye level and looking at the rim while slowly rotating the disc.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The word "disc" is commonly spelled with either a C or a K (disc or disk).
  2. ↑ Walter Frederick Morrison and Phil Kennedy: Flat Flip Flies Straight!: True Origins of the Frisbee; January 2006; Wormhole Publishers, Wethersfield, CT; ISBN 0-9774517-4-7, pp. 34-35
  3. ↑ McLellan, Dennis (2010-02-13). "Walter Fredrick Morrison dies at 90; father of the Frisbee". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-fred-morrison13-2010feb13,0,7076853.story. Retrieved 2010-02-14. 
  4. ↑ "'Frisbee' marks 50th anniversary of name change". CTVglobemedia. 2007-06-16. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070616/frisbee_070616/20070616?hub=TopStories. Retrieved 2007-06-19. 
  5. ↑ "Frisbee inventor dies at 90 - CNN.com". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/12/frisbee.morrison.obit/?hpt=T2. Retrieved 2010-05-02. 
  6. ↑ Morrison, Fred; Phil Kennedy (January 2006). Flat Flip Flies Straight! True Origins of the Frisbee. Wethersfield, CT: Wormhole Publishers. ISBN 978-0-9774517-4-6. OCLC 233974379. "'Headrick had an eye for product design... The "NEW LOOK" contributed mightily to its phenomenal success... I've never known what financial arrangements Headrick had with Wham-O. It would have been interesting to know, but knowing wouldn't have changed anything. It was enough to know that under Headrick's guidance our increasing bank account was due to what he was doing.'-Fred Morrison" 
  7. ↑ The First Flight of the Frisbee: The History of the Frisbee
  8. ↑ Malafronte, Victor A. (May 1998). F. Davis Johnson (ed.). ed. The Complete Book of Frisbee: The History of the Sport & the First Official Price Guide. Rachel Forbes (illus.). Alameda, CA: American Trends Publishing Company. ISBN 0966385527. OCLC 39487710. 
  9. ↑ "Edward "Steady Ed" Headrick" Find A Grave.

Further reading

  • Stancil, E. D., and Johnson, M. D.; Frisbee, A Practitioner's Manual and Definitive Treatise, Workman Publishing Company, New York (July, 1975); ISBN 978-0-911104-53-0
  • Norton, Gary; The Official Frisbee Handbook, Bantam Books, Toronto/New York/London (July, 1972); no ISBN
  • Danna, Mark, and Poynter, Dan; Frisbee Players' Handbook, Parachuting Publications, Santa Barbara, California (1978); ISBN 0-915516-19-5
  • Tips, Charles, and Roddick, Dan; Frisbee Sports & Games, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1979); ISBN 978-0-89087-233-8
  • Tips, Charles; Frisbee by the Masters, Celestial Arts, Millbrae, California (March 1977); ISBN 978-0-89087-142-3
  • Morrison, Fred & Kennedy, Phil; Flat Flip Flies Straight! True Origins of the Frisbee, Wormhole Publishers, Wethersfield, CT (January 2006); ISBN 0-9774517-4-7
  • Lorenz, Ralph; Spinning Flight: Dynamics of Frisbees, Boomerangs, Samaras and Skipping Stones, Copernicus, New York (September 2006); ISBN 978-0-387-30779-4

External links