Shuttlecock

A shuttlecock for use in a game resembling badminton but which, to the usual characteristics of badminton of returing the shuttlecock through the air by striking it with a racquet before the shuttlecock has touched he ground, adds the unusual characteristic of returning the shuttlecock through the air by striking it with a racquet after the shuttlecock has touched once on the ground and has rebounded to a striking height, similar to the usual characteristic of tennis ball rebounding and play in the usual game of tennis,

• said shuttlecock comprising:
• a head which is substantially spherically curved throughout a substantial portion of the external periphery thereof including throughout a forward, nose portion and an axially intermediate portion;
• and
• a skirt member including a relatively thin-walled rearwardly flaring generally frusto-conical skirt with a head core portion secured at a forward end thereof;
• said head including an axially rearwardly opening socket in a trailing portion thereof, said socket extending axially forwardly within said head along the longitudinal axis of said shuttlecock, to a level located at least approximately half-way through the head;
• said head core of said skirt member being secured in said socket so that said skirt extends coaxially rearwardly from said trailing portion of said head as a skirt for said shuttlecock;
• said head being made of closed-cell polmeric foam having an average cell size of 0.3-0.7 mm, a tensile strength of 250-400 kn/m.sup.2, an elongation at break of 100-300 percent, a density of 0.03-0.075 gm/cm.sup.3, a Shore hardness of less than 15, and a diameter of 5-15 cm;
• said head core having a density of 0.8-0.9 gm/cm.sup.3, and a diameter of 1.5-4.0 cm;
• and
• said head core and said head together constituting a head assembly having an overall mass of 15-30 gm, and a mean density of 0.10-0.2 gm/cm.sup.3.