Title: Whirlo-Way
Subtitle:
Author(s): Fred Morrison
Year Published: 1946
Format:
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Number of Pages: 1
Publisher:
Special Notes: This is the first know published document for the concept of a flying disc. Earlier Fred Morrison and his father had explored the idea of producing "better-flying cake pans" by stamping aerodynamically-shaped metal discs, but the idea was put on hold when Fred joined the Army Air Corp during WWII. In 1946 Fred picked up once more and sketched the Whirlo-Way (which he named after a famous race horse from the 1940s). At that time, he was still planning on a metal disc (with a wire rolled into the rim for stabilizing weight). Fred had the forethought to put his design on paper and mail three copies, including this one to himself. A year later, after showing the design to his employer, Warren Franscioni, they decided that plastic, newly developed during the war, would make a better material for mass-produced flying discs.
Contributor(s): Phil Kennedy