Howard Head

Howard Head (July 31, 1914, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – March 3, 1991) was an American aeronautical engineer who is credited with the invention of the first commercially successful aluminum laminate skis[1] and the oversized tennis racket.

[3] In 1947, Howard Head was an aircraft engineer for Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, and went skiing for the first time.

[4] The skis developed by Head were based on the structural principles that he had learned during his experience as an aircraft engineer.

In a warehouse he rented from Albert Gunther Inc in an alley off of Biddle Street in downtown Baltimore, he used a technique known as metal sandwich construction.

The first skis he made consisted of two light layers of aluminum bonded to sidewalls of thin plywood, with a center filling of honeycomb plastic.

Head figured out the flaws of his design, came up with modifications, sent the new ski pair to Robinson, and the process repeated.

After a number of takeovers and acquisitions, HEAD, N.V. is currently based in Kennelbach, Austria (operational) and Amsterdam, Netherlands (corporate offices).