Abstract: A flying toy of the rotating blade type, comprises a bladed spinner which is twirled by a shaft that is rotated by pulling a string that is wound about the shaft. Pivoted hooks are urged by the centrifugal force of an extended portion thereof, radially inwardly to retain the spinner for rotation with the shaft so long as the shaft is rotating. But when the string is fully unwound and the shaft stops rotating, then the inertia of those same weighted portions swings the hooks radially outwardly to release the spinner, which is thus launched. A flared bell on the toy receives the spinner when it falls again; and the string is wound back up on the shaft by an elastic that rotates the shaft in a direction opposite the unwinding direction.