You spin me round

From disc golf to fast-action team games and even to dog competitions, flying discs have come a long way since their inventor, Fred Morrison, started selling his Flyin' Cake Pans around California beaches in the late 1930s

Flying discs (Frisbee is a brand trademark by Wham-O) have long been a great source of fun on hot summer days. But the humble plastic disc has gone high-tech, and Ultimate - a team game roughly modeled on American football, but with no player contact - is played competitively by millions around the world.

If you think a disc is a piece of simple molded plastic, then think again. Pad Timmons is general manager of Discraft, whose UltraStar is the official disc of the national governing body USA Ultimate and the leading disc used by players around the world. Speaking from the company headquarters in Wixom, Michigan, he says the company has a "secret recipe" for making the UltraStar, similar to the secret recipe Coca-Cola uses to make its beverage. "It's a fine-tuned piece of sporting equipment," he explains.