problem of icy bottoms and adopting continuous steel edges to harden the edges of the ski. The new improved skis were almost as heavy as the conventional wooden skis, but were stronger and easier to control. Head skis helped to popularize alpine skiing in the U.S.; the innovative equipment made turning significantly easier. In 1950, Head founded the Head Ski Company, which became very successful. Within a couple of years it was the major supplier of alpine skis in the U.S. and influenced ski design worldwide. The company later diversified into tennis and other racquet sports; its most notable product was the innovative Arthur Ashe racquet, constructed of aluminum honeycomb. Howard Head sold the company to AMF in 1969 and retired. After a number of takeovers and acquisitions, HEAD, N.V. is currently based in Kennelbach, Austria (operational) and Amsterdam, Netherlands (corporate offices). Tennis racquet After retiring, Head decided to take tennis lessons and for this purpose he got himself a tennis ball machine, which was manufactured by Prince Manufacturing Inc. Although Howard was not very good at tennis, he figured out that the equipment for the game needed a lot of improvement or he was going to need a lot more practice. To begin with he became the majority shareholder and chairman of the board of Prince. While Head considerably improved the design of the ball machine, he still did not get any better at the game. He believed that a big factor that was slowing his improvement was the small sweetspot of the tennis racquet. In order to make the game of tennis easier, Head came up with the design of oversized racquet. He filed and obtained a patent that covered tennis racquets with size 95–135 square inches. He also pioneered the development of the graphite racquet, which eventually became the industry standard, replacing wooden racquets. Although Prince was the first company to patent oversize racquets, the Bentley Fortissimo preceded the patent by two years, causing Germany to invalidate it. Weed also introduced an oversize racquet in 1975, before the first Prince oversize, the aluminum Prince Classic, was introduced. External links Howard Head An interview with Howard Broody. – the physics behind Head's Racquet Invention at play.org – inventors – Howard Head Head.com – timeline Prince Tennis.com – history References American manufacturing businesspeople Tennis equipment American aerospace engineers Businesspeople from Philadelphia 1914 births 1991 deaths William Penn Charter School