It's the second time you've foiled my effort to acquire an important racquet for my book, David. This one has been on my search tab for 5 years! It would seem that in the rare instances where our interests intersect, I am fated to lose out to you, while you end up paying just a little more than (what I considered to be) an outrageous price for the acquisition due to my involvement.
This racquet is covered by Kuebler in his book(s), though he did not identify it as having been produced by Kneissl, perhaps because the butt sticker is missing on the example in his collection? WCT, like Wimbledon, only licensed their name to racquet makers, they didn't actually make anything on their own.
The man behind this is a German by the name of Wolfgang Rutz. His main objective was to create a more stable frame by increasing the polar moment of inertia, through the alignment of the shaft attachment points with the widest part of the head (the same principle behind the Chris, Andreef Speedshaft, and Hazells Streamline designs). He also worked out a shock absorbing handle contraption, and patented these ideas in Germany, Belgium and the UK between 1971 and 1974. However, the detailed architecture of the Silver Arrow frame was only granted a patent in Germany, in 1975, so I don't think its production could have been earlier than 1973, when that patent application was first submitted.
Per the patent description, the core of the shaft is fiberglass-reinforced polyester, which is sandwiched between two high-modulus carbon fiber strips (like on some graphite-reinforced wooden racquets). The head and bridge portions are further stiffened and reinforced by a wraparound fiberglass shell. In other words, this is a solid core frame, which should explain why it's so skinny.
If this racquet was indeed produced before 1977, it would qualify as the first 100% FRP frame made by Kneissl (hence my eagerness to study it!) I would be most interested in knowing its weight, balance, and flex, if you could measure them. Should you ever decide to give it a go on the court, I'd also be very interested in hearing your impressions afterwards.
