GB2187969A - Aerodynamic toy - Google Patents

Abstract

A flying saucer type aerodynamic toy 10 includes an axially symmetrical downwardly concave flying saucer portion 14 and a central receiver portion 18 defining a downwardly opening concavity 22 which is substantially symmetrical about the axis of symmetry 16 and can receive an upwardly-pointing fingertip of the user, for launching or catching purposes. A cap may cover the upper end of portion 18. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Aerodynamic toy My invention relates to aerodynamic toys, and more particularly to aerodynamic toys of the type which are adapted to be thrown through the air and are widely known by the term "flying saucer", and to methods of launching and retrieving the same.

Aerodynamic toys of the flying saucer type and methods of throwing and catching the same are known in the prior art. For example, a well-known aerodynamic toy of the flying saucer type and methods of throwing the same are shown and described in United States Patent No. 3,359,678, of E.E. Headrick, which was issued on December 26, 1967, and assigned to the Wham-O Manufacturing Company of San Gabriel, California.

Other aerodynamic toys of the flying saucer type are shown and described in United States Patent No. 3,724,122 of Richard L. Gillespie, Sr., issued April 3, 1973; No.

4,132,031 of Louis G. Psyras, issued January 2, 1979; No. 4,157,631 of Kifferstein et al., issued June 12, 1979; No. 4,196,540 of Hembree, et al., issued April 8, 1980; No.

4,205,484 of Kovac et al., issued June 3, 1980; No. 4,216,611 of Louis G. Psyras, issued August 12, 1980; No. 4,253,269 of Richard A. Sullivan, issued March 3, 1981, No.

4,254,575 of Arnold S. Gould, issued March 10, 1981; and No. 4,302,901 of Louis G.

Psyras, issued December 1, 1981. (The term "prior art" as used herein or in any statement made by or on behalf of application means only that any document or thing referred to as prior art bears, directly or inferentially, a date which is earlier than the effective date hereof.) While aerodynamic toys of the flying saucer type, and particularly those closely resembling the flying saucer toy of the above-cited Headrick patent, have been widely sold for a considerable number of years, and while a few individuals have by dint of extended practice and experimentation developed specialized modes of launching and retrieving such flying saucer aerodynamic toys, many if not most of the casual users of these flying saucer aerodynamic toys have quickly lost interest in using them, except on a very occasional basis, because of the very limited modes of launching them (throwing) and retrieving them (catching them between two hands), which are the only modes which can be mastered without extended practice.

Accordingly, k is an object of my invention to provide novel flying saucer aerodynamic toys.

Another object of my invention is to provide novel flying saucer aerodynamic toys which make it possible for casual users of flying saucer type aerodynamic toys to practice modes of launching and retrieving which hitherto could be practiced only by highly skilled users.

Yet another object of my invention is to provide novel flying saucer aerodynamic toys which, while they open up new dimensions of play experience to casual users, at the same time make use of flying saucer aerodynamic toy configurations which are well-known in the art.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

My invention, accordingly, comprises the apparatus embodying features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts, all as exemplified in the following disclosure, and the scope of my invention will be indicated in the claims appended hereto.

In accordance with a principal feature of my invention an aerodynamic toy comprises a downwardly concave flying saucer portion and a finger-receiving portion defining a downwardly flaring concavity which is substantially symmetrical about the axis of symmetry of said flying saucer portion and has an inner portion which is adapted to hold a fingertip in alignment with said axis of symmetry.

In accordance with another principal feature of my invention said flying saucer portion of said aerodynamic toy is of conventional configuration typified in said Headrick United States Patent.

In accordance with yet another principal feature of my invention, in some embodiments thereof the apices of the finger-receiving portions of said aerodynamic toys do not extend above the upper surfaces of their associated flying saucer portions.

In accordance with a further principal feature of my invention, in certain embodiments thereof the upper surfaces of said flying saucer portion are continuous and pass over the apices of their associated finger-receiving portions.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of my invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, illustrating an exemplary embodiment of the invention in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an aerodynamic toy embodying the present invention as received upon a human finger; Figure 2 is an axial sectional view of an aerodynamic toy constructed in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 3 is a partial axial sectional view of an aerodynamic toy constructed in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring now to Fig. 1, there is shown an aerodynamic toy 10 embodying my invention, carried by a human finger 12.

As will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the aerodynamic toy art, informed by the present disclosure, aerodynamic toy 10 comprises an outer portion 14 which is substantially identical to the corresponding outer portion of a conventional flying saucer aerodynamic toy, such as the flying saucer aerodynamic toy shown and described in the Headrick patent cited hereinabove.

As will also be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the aerodynamic toy art, outer portion 14, sometimes called the "aerodynamic portion", is symmetrical about an axis of symmetry 16, which is also the axis of symmetry of the entire aerodynamic toy 10.

As also seen in Fig. 1, aerodynamic toy 10 further comprises an inner portion 18, which itself comprises a generally cylindrical intermediate portion 20 and a conical finger-receiving portion 22. As will be evident from Fig. 1, both intermediate portion 20 and finger-receiving portion 22 are generally symmetrical about axis of symmetry 16, and thus inner portion 18 can be seen to be generally symmetrical about axis of symmetry 16.

Referring now to Fig. 2, there is shown a cross-section of aerodynamic toy 10 containing axis of symmetry 16.

As best seen by comparison of said Headrick patent with Fig. 2 and the portion of the present specification which is related thereto, outer portion 14 of aerodynamic toy 10 is substantially identical to the corresponding outer portion of the flying saucer aerodynamic toy shown and described in said Headrick patent.

In particular, outer portion 14 includes the rim 24, ridges 26 on curved surface 28, and flat central portion 30, all of which are also found in the device of the Headrick patent.

As also seen in Fig. 2, outer portion or aerodynamic portion 14 define a concavity 32, which because of the presence of intermediate member 20 is generally toroidal, and is symmetrical about axis of symmetry 16.

As also seen in Fig. 2, aerodynamic portion 14, intermediate portion 20, and finger-receiving portion, or receiver, 22 are integral, e.g., constitute different portions of a single plastic molding.

It is to be understood, however, that this particular unitary construction of aerodynamic toy 10 is not a limitation of my invention. In other preferred embodiments of my invention, e.g., outer portion 14 may be fabricated as a single piece by well known plastic molding methods suitable for the purpose, inner portion 18 may be separately fabricated by the same well known plastic molding methods, and outer portion 14 and inner portion 18 may then be joined together adjacent edge 34 (Fig. 2) by means of a well known plastic cement.

As seen in Fig. 2, the receiver 22 of aerodynamic toy 10 is generally conical in shape, excepting that its apex is somewhat curved, rather than coming to a sharp point. It is to be understood, however, that the radius of the curved apex portion 36 is far smaller than the effective radius of the tip of a typical human finger, whereby the finger of a user will contact the conical walls of receiver 22, rather than any part of the curved apex portion. This feature of the preferred embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 is not, however, a limitation of the present invention.

Similarly, the maximum radius skirt portion of receiver 22 may be slightly curved as shown in Fig. 2 to conveniently join intermediate portion 20. It is to be understood, however, that my invention is not limited to devices including the curved apex portion or the curved skirt portion of receiver 22 as shown in Fig. 2.

It is further to be understood that in some embodiments of my invention receiver 22 will be bell-shaped, e.g., shaped generally like a trumpet bell or the bell of some other brass musical instrument, rather than taking the shape strictly geometrically defined as a right circular cone.

Thus, the term "conical" will be seen to be used herein in its broadest acceptation, and thus, e.g., to embrace curvalinearly flared configurations, such as the configuration of a brass musical instrument bell.

A further receiver configuration which falls within the scope of my invention is shown in Fig. 3, wherein the receiver 40 of the aerodynamic toy 42 of a second preferred embodiment of my invention flares into a narrow, essentially flat circular disk portion 44 before joining intermediate member 46.

As also seen in Fig. 3, it may be preferred in certain embodiments of my invention to provide the upper surface of aerodynamic toy 42 with a flat crown 48 similar to the flat crown shown and described in said Headrick patent, in which event it will be preferable to separately fabricate crown 48 and adhere it to the inner part of the outer portion of aerodynamic toy 42, in order to leave a cavity 50 within aerodynamic toy 42 and thus minimize the weight thereof.

As will now be seen by those having ordinary skill in the aerodynamic toy art, informed by the present disclosure, the aerodynamic toy of my invention may be retrieved from flight by synchronizing the forward motion of finger 12 with the forward motion of aerodynamic toy 10 (Fig. 1) and at the same time raising finger 12 until it contacts the lower surface of receiver 22. 1 have found in practice that it is very easy to learn to thus retrieve an aerodynamic toy closely resembling aerodynamic toy 10. I have further learned that when said aerodynamic toy closely resembling aerodynamic toy 10 is thus retrieved from flight it will continue to rotate, without forward motion, while borne by finger 12, provided only that the inner surface of receiver 22 is sufficiently smooth.

I have also learned that a prototype aero dynamic toy closely resembling aerodynamic toy 10 can be launched from finger 12, without expert skill and extended practice, by (1) increasing the speed of rotation of said prototype aerodynamic toy by means of light, tangential blows of the free hand on rim 24 and then (2) sharply thrusting finger 12 upward and immediately withdrawing it downward from the receiver portion of said prototype aPgodynamic toy.

I have further discovered by simple experimentation with the said prototype aerodynamic toy, and without extended practice, that other modes of play with the aerodynamic toy of my invention, similar to modes of play heretofore available only to expert users, can be readily developed by casual users.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceeding description, are efficiently attained, and since certain changes may be made in the above constructions and the method of utilizing the same without departing from the scope of my invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative only, and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all the generic and specific features of my invention hereindescribed, and all statements of the scope of my invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

The invention is also not to be considered as limited to or by the objects of the invention stated above.

Claims (8)

1. An aerodynamic toy, comprising: an axially symmetrical, downwardly concave flying saucer portion, and a receiver portion defining a downwardly opening concavity which is substantially symmetrical about the axis of symmetry of said flying saucer portion and has an inner portion adapted to hold a finger tip in alignment with said axis of symmetry.

2. An aerodynamic toy as claimed in Claim 1 having a continuous, non-concave upper surface.

3. An aerodynamic toy as claimed in Claim 2 having a crown portion raised above the center of said upper surface.

4. The method of retrieving a flying saucer aerodynamic toy from flight comprising the steps of: synchronizing the motion of a finger with the movement of said flying saucer aerodynamic toy; and raising said finger into engagement with a conical central concavity in the lower surface of said flying saucer aerodynamic toy.

5. The method of launching a flying saucer aerodynamic toy which is rotating upon a fingertip received in a central, downwardly concave portion of said toy, comprising the steps of: increasing the speed of rotation of said flying saucer aerodynamic toy by light, tangential blows of the free hand upon the rim of said flying saucer aerodynamic toy; and sharply thrusting said finger upward and then sharply withdrawing it.

6. An aerodynamic toy substantially as hereinbefore described,with reference to the accompanying drawings.

7. A method of launching a flying saucer aerodynamic toy substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A method of retrieving a flying saucer type aerodynamic toy substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.