Jim Drake (1929 – 2012) was an American aeronautical engineer who is widely credited with the invention of the sport of Windsurfing. He patented his windsurfing concept in 1968. Drake conceptualized, designed and hand built the first board and articulating sail rig prototype in his garage. He started the sport's first company, Windsurfing International. He produced multiple championship winning windsurfing board designs throughout his career, as well as created a popular offshoot of windsurfing with the world's first un-masted wing sail. Drake would go on to become an altruistic figure head for the sport he pioneered over the course of his lifetime.
Aeronautics career
Drake earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering with an option in aeronautics from Stanford university in 1951. He began his aeronautical engineering career at North American Aviation in his hometown of Los Angeles, California. There he worked in the advanced design group as a principal engineer on a number of top secret record breaking experimental aircraft. Notable among his aircraft designs at North American were the X-15 rocket plane, which broke altitude and speed records for manned flight, and the B-70 high altitude bomber. He later worked for Rockwell and their division RAND Corporation. He helped found the think tank R&D Associates (RDA), a technical studies firm. His career took him to The Pentagon for various periods both directly and indirectly, part of which was associated with the development of improved Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and Tomahawk missiles during the Cold War of the 1960s and 70's. Drake retired from his aeronautical engineering career in 1998 after 47 years of elite level design work.
Invention of windsurfing
Jim Drake first began conceptualizing the idea of windsurfing in 1962 along with close friend, sailor and fellow aeronautical engineer Fred Payne. They wanted to combine the portability and ease of skiing with the joys of sailing. In their spare time together, while away from their high level aerospace engineering jobs, they played with the idea for fun. Drake's career as a successful aeronautical engineer was thriving by this time, in part, because he enjoyed the mental challenge of "solving a technical puzzle." Then in 1966, at a small dinner party in Santa Monica, California, Drake casually mentioned his idea of creating a sail powered surfboard to a family friend named Hoyle Schweitzer. He shared with Schweitzer his idea of creating a new type of portable sail craft, whereby the sailor stood upright on a large surfboard while holding directly onto a small sail.
Drake's question came down to simple operation of how a standing person could control both the power of the sail as well as the direction of the craft without a rudder. Drake discovered that one's ability to rotate the sail's position relative to the board could allow control of both power and direction. Experimenting with a rotational design, he incorporated the concept for the universal joint. Drake completed his engineering concept with a wishbone boom, a daggerboard, mast, mast foot, triangular sail and fin.
Upon hearing Drake's concept, Schweitzer was immediately enthusiastic about the profitable business potential in Drake's invention. From the outset, the two men were motivated by different forces. As a struggling computer program salesman, Schweitzer eagerly sought to partner with Drake in order to capitalize on the engineer's brilliant sailboard concept. Once a partnership was forged, Schweitzer quickly moved to secure a joint patent on Drake's invention. Schweitzer and Drake started a company called Windsurfing International. As a partnership, Drake was the inventor, Schweitzer was the salesman.