Jim Drake dies at 83

Aeronautical engineer Jim Drake had already solved the "riddle" coupling of a surfboard with a sail, when a young man who stopped to admire the "Lower the Board" in late 1960 suggested that he called "perfect name": windsurfing.

In his garage in Santa Monica, Drake had designed and built a prototype designed to operate in a new way - on foot - and guided by a set of hand wing of the invention.

He first tried the card in 1967 out of Marina del Rey and the "wind-propelled apparatus" was patented three years later.

The vessel has caused the sport to take off in Europe, and by early 1980 some 200,000 had been sold windsurfing enthusiasts.

Windsurfing when he debuted as an Olympic sport in 1984, Drake looked at his first competition outside of Long Beach.

There was also a measure of the influence of the amorphous tip: "Windsurfing" essentially has become the generic name for the sport.

Drake, who also made a significant contribution to the aerospace industry, died June 19 at his home in Pfafftown, North Carolina, of complications from pulmonary disease, said her daughter Hollis Fleming. He was 83 years.

While working for the Defense Department in the East in 1962, thought of the "standing on a surfboard in the middle of the Potomac and the power of the kite flying with a laptop," said Drake in 1981 The Times.

Back in California, the sailor has suggested the idea to combine sailing and surfing in his intimate friend Hoyle Schweitzer, a surfer who offered to pay for the development board, Drake told the Times in 1983.

I had to understand "how to make everything work in a simple, direct and emotionally satisfying settings. The key was how to handle," said Drake in 1983. "I knew I wanted to stay and did not want a rod thyme, then there was the problem of thinking in a control mechanism."

Plates small sailboats were popular at that time, but had to be used during the session. Drake devised a way of uniting sailing on board via a universal joint, allowing the screw to navigate a full circle or flat - and allowed the pilot to stand. Has also been updated "an old idea" that had worked on many boats, appliances laptop quadrilateral that has allowed the wing to tilt and rotate in any direction.

From the beginning, Schweitzer was more interested in the transformation of a business card, Drake recalled later. Together they form Windsurfer International to manufacture the panels, and both their names appear on the patent.

At best, Drake said he considered himself "re-inventor" of windsurfing, two men who could claim for himself the invention. "My contribution was to be really effective and functional," said Windsurf magazine in 1996.

When the Association of Professional surfing. Schweitzer and Drake presented his Hall of Fame in 2002, was acclaimed as an aid "to mold windsurfing into its present form." The Drake Group called the "father of surfing", Schweitzer and co-developer "who brought surfing to the masses."

However, the couple had separated for a long time. In early 1970, Drake sold his interest in the business of Schweitzer for 36,000 dollars, equivalent to about U.S. $ 175 000 today.

Drake then explained his decision by saying simply "It's just too little my cup of tea."

"It's always been a hobby for him," said his daughter. "He had six mouths to feed young and I honestly never wanted to give the aerospace industry, which he loved."

As an aeronautical engineer and analyst for national security systems, dividing his time between private industry in Southern California and the government work in Washington.

He worked on the project by the X-15 rocket plane and finding the configuration of the successful supersonic strategic bomber B-70, according to the Times in 1983.

He also was involved in the initial plans for the Tomahawk cruise missile, according to the Rand Corporation, where he worked as an aeronautical engineer.