Frisbee is Wham-O's trademark; flying disc is the generic
Injection-molded plastic discs glide for play and sport, but Frisbee remains Wham-O's registered brand even when people use it generically. Walter Frederick Morrison invented the toy in the late 1930s after tossing popcorn lids with Lucile; war service later interrupted their business.
A typical disc spans roughly 20 to 25 centimetres, has a pronounced lip and is shaped like an airfoil in cross-section. Because of the trademark, organized sports such as ultimate and disc golf avoid the word Frisbee. Morrison and Lucile tossed a popcorn can lid after Thanksgiving dinner in 1937, then realized there was a market when someone offered them 25 cents for a cake pan they were throwing on a beach.
Walter flew P-47s for the Army Air Force in the Second World War and was held as a prisoner of war. Afterwards he sketched an improved disc called the Whirlo-Way, after the racehorse Whirlaway, and with partner Warren Franscioni began making plastic discs, selling them at fairs with a joke pitch that the Flyin' Saucer was free but its invisible wire cost a dollar. The partnership ended in early 1950, and in 1954 Morrison founded American Trends. In June 1957 Wham-O founders Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin renamed his Pluto Platter the Frisbee, after hearing students use a word taken from the Frisbie Pie Company, whose empty tins Yale students had thrown.
Ed Headrick, hired by Wham-O in 1964, reworked the mold, thickening the rim and adding mass for more accurate throws, and patented a professional model with raised ridges called the Rings of Headrick. Remembered as the father of disc sports, Headrick set up the International Frisbee Association and later helped create disc golf. Michigan declared 6 July 1969 Frisbee Day, and the toy entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. Ultimate discs measure 27.3 centimetres and weigh 175 grams; golf discs, split into drivers, mid-range discs and putters, have sharper rims and a minimum diameter of 21 centimetres. David Wiggins Jr. holds the longest recorded throw, 338 metres.
Source: Frisbee
