The man who invented the Frisbee, one of the world's most popular toys, has died at his home in Utah in the United States.

Walter Frederick Morrison was 90 and had been suffering from cancer.

He conceived and developed his aerodynamic plastic disc in the 1950s, and more than 200 million have been sold worldwide.

Frisbee historian Phil Kennedy says Mr Morrison got the idea from playing with a metal cake pan on the beach in California.

The platter's novel aerodynamic shape allowed it to hover briefly or travel long distances, kept aloft by its rotation.

Mr Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957.

The name Frisbee was later adopted because that was the nickname given to the platter by college students in New England.

The name came from the Frisbie Pie Co, a local bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the soon-to-be Frisbee.