--- title: Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention | daily.dev description: Van Phillips lost part of his leg in a 1976 water-skiing accident and, though untrained as an engineer, went on to study prosthetic design and invent the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention | daily.dev og:description: Van Phillips lost part of his leg in a 1976 water-skiing accident and, though untrained as an engineer, went on to study prosthetic design and invent the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/jl9jXn0BV.png og:image:alt: Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Van Phillips lost part of his leg in a 1976 water-skiing accident and, though untrained as an engineer, went on to study prosthetic design and invent the Flex-Foot: a curved carbon-fiber composite spring that mimics the energy storage and return of a biological Achilles tendon rather than the shape of a human foot. The design evolved into the running blades now used by Paralympic athletes, was acquired by Össur, and became the center of a 2007-2008 legal fight when the IAAF tried to bar sprinter Oscar Pistorius from competing against able-bodied athletes, a ban the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned for lack of evidence of a metabolic advantage. The story is framed as an engineering lesson: solving what a system needs to do, rather than mimicking its appearance, can lead to real innovation. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [3 Questions: A running shoe that adapts to the runner](https://daily.dev/posts/3-questions-a-running-shoe-that-adapts-to-the-runner-5lwvazrl9) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Pogo-Bot Goes All Terrain With Compliant Foot](https://daily.dev/posts/pogo-bot-goes-all-terrain-with-compliant-foot-1nu0lyioq) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A bionic knee restores natural movement](https://daily.dev/posts/a-bionic-knee-restores-natural-movement-sbpi7wb4g) · MIT Technology Review · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [A flexible lens controlled by light-activated artificial muscles promises to let soft machines see](https://daily.dev/posts/a-flexible-lens-controlled-by-light-activated-artificial-muscles-promises-to-let-soft-machines-see-ne02e19fg) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#science](https://daily.dev/tags/science) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv"},"datePublished":"2026-08-13T14:49:41.758Z","dateModified":"2026-08-13T14:50:04.785Z","description":"Van Phillips lost part of his leg in a 1976 water-skiing accident and, though untrained as an engineer, went on to study prosthetic design and invent the...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f243b6973aafa35fd43eac5ef158a428?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/f243b6973aafa35fd43eac5ef158a428?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/bladerunners-and-the-mother-of-invention-jl9jxn0bv","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"science","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Bladerunners And The Mother Of Invention"}]} ```