Former Engineering Lecturer Alan Adler, the inventor of a long-range Aerobie flying disc, plans to celebrate his seventieth birthday by giving away a thousand Aerobies at Manzanita Field on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.

Adler said he took an interest in the aerodynamics of flying discs like Frisbees and soon discovered he could improve the design.

“Whenever I played with a Frisbee, [I was] aware of how thick it was and how much air had to push aside to make it fly,” Adler said. “It was interesting to come up with something thinner that would have less aerodynamic drag.”

Adler did the first test flight of an Aerobie ring across Roble Field in 1984 while teaching in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Aerobie set the Guinness World Record in 1985 for the farthest human-thrown object by traveling 1,333 feet, which is more than a quarter mile.

The Aerobie has been tossed across Niagara Falls and the Potomac River.

“The older I get, the more fun I get from giving toys away,” Adler said.