Meet the American who launched the Frisbee, Fred Morrison, World War II combat pilot and POW

A 1930s California beach boy, Walter Frederick Morrison saw opportunity in the playtime practice of skimming pie plates through the air. He gave flight to the Frisbee after fighting in the skies over Europe in WWII.

Fred Morrison launched a leisure lifestyle with his fantastic plastic flying saucer. 

His contribution to global recreation gained air only after he dodged death by steering a steel missile in the skies over Europe in World War II.

Morrison, a Southern California beach boy, first called his spinning discs Flyin’ Cake Pans and then Whirlo-Way. It’s known globally today as the Frisbee. 

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO SPREAD GLOBAL GOSPEL OF SURFING, DUKE KAHANAMOKU, HAWAII'S ORIGINAL BIG KAHUNA

"It was an instant phenomenon," Tristan Lin, brand director for Wham-O, told Fox News Digital. 

"Before you knew it, every college kid in America was playing Frisbee."

Walter Frederick Morrison, who invented the Frisbee, is shown promoting his Pluto Platters. They were the forerunner of the Frisbee. (Connecticut State Library/Public Domain)

Wham-O, based in California, popularized the hula-hoop, super ball and Morrison’s Frisbee, among other whimsical innovations. 

The genius of the Frisbee "is its simplicity," said Lin. 

"It was an instant phenomenon."

Morrison was actually inspired by the easy-as-pie act of slinging baking pans through the air, a common recreational activity before his Frisbee took flight.

"The Frisbee started off as nothing more than a container that carried pies," reported the University of Southern California online engineering publication Illumin Magazine, which analyzed the physics of the flying disc. 

Border collie Emma catches a Frisbee in the "Freestyle Flying Disc" competition during the Purina Pro