Corradino D'Ascanio
Encyclopedia
Popoli
Popoli is a comune and town in the province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Italy.-History:Its Latin name was Castrum Properi , which name was recorded as early as 1016 as the property of Girardo, son of Roccone...
, Pescara
Pescara
Pescara is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As of January 1, 2007 it was the most populated city within Abruzzo at 123,059 residents, 400,000 with the surrounding metropolitan area...
February 1, 1891 — Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, August 6, 1981) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
aeronautical engineer. D'Ascanio designed the first production helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
, for Agusta
Agusta
Agusta is an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It is based in Samarate, Northern Italy. It is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first airplane in 1907...
, and designed the first motor scooter for Ferdinando Innocenti
Ferdinando Innocenti
Ferdinando Innocenti , born in Pescia, Italy, was the founder of the Innocenti company and was the creator of the Lambretta motorscooter.Innocenti started working as an assistant to a blacksmith in 1907...
. After the two fell out, D'Ascanio helped Enrico Piaggio produce the original Vespa
Vespa
Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A...
.
Biography
D'Ascanio had an early passion for flight and design: by the age of fifteen, after studying flying techniques and the ratio between weight and wingspan of some birds, he built an experimental gliderGlider aircraft
Glider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...
which he would launch from the hills near his home town.
World War I
After graduating in 1914 in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, he enlisted in the voluntary division of the Italian ArmyItalian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
entitled "weapon of Engineers, Division Battalion Aviatori" in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
, where he was assigned the testing of airplane engines. Appointed sub-lieutenant on March 21, 1915, D'Ascanio was sent to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to choose a rotary engine
Rotary engine
The rotary engine was an early type of internal-combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration, in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the entire cylinder block rotated around it...
to be produced in Italy for the Corpo Aeronautico Militare
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946...
, returning with an agreement to produce the Gnome et Rhône
Gnome et Rhône
Gnome et Rhône was a major French aircraft engine manufacturer. Between 1914 and 1918 they produced 25,000 of their 9-cylinder Delta and Le Rhône 110 hp rotary designs, while another 75,000 were produced by various licensees, powering the majority of aircraft in the first half of the war on...
designed Le Rhône
Le Rhône
Le Rhône was the name given to a series of popular rotary aircraft engines produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône and the successor company of Gnome et Rhône. They powered a number of military aircraft types of the First World War...
.
After a brief pilot training course in Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
on a Farman MF.7
Farman MF.7
|-See also:-External links:* Contemporary technical description of the MF.7 with photographs and drawings....
, he returned to engineering, designing a patented forward-facing monitoring device to improve maintenance monitoring within flight squadrons (estimated to have saved fifty lives), and took part in the trials of the first radio equipment installed in Italian aircraft.
In 1916 D'Ascanio was assigned to join Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing. O. Pomilio
Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing. O. Pomilio
Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing. O. Pomilio was an Italian World War I biplane aircraft manufacturer.The Pomilio series of aircraft were two-seater scout aircraft. When first introduced in Spring 1917 the type was faster than most other machines of its day although instability problems had to be dealt...
, engaged in the manufacture of equipment SP2, Type C, D Type and others. Following the end of World War I, the Pomilio brothers sold the company and moved in 1918 with key staff, including D'Ascanio, to Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to form the Pomilio Brothers Corporation.
Between the wars
On his return to Italy after a year in 1919, D'Ascanio again settled in Popoli, focused on the control mechanisms for helicopters, through which he derived a number of patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s. In 1925 he founded a company with Baron Pietro Trojani, which commissioned by the Ministry dell'Aeronautica produced in 1930 its third prototype, the coaxial D'AT3. This relatively large machine had two double-bladed, counter-rotating rotors, with control achieved by using auxiliary wings or servo-tabs on the trailing edges of the blades, a concept that was later adopted by other helicopter designers, including Bleeker and Kaman. Three small propellers mounted on the airframe were used for additional control of pitch, roll, and yaw. Piloted by Marinello Nelli in October 1930 at Ciampino Airport
Ciampino Airport
-Access:There is no rail transport at Ciampino Airport. There are direct bus connections both to Roma Termini railway station and to close local stations...
, this machine held modest Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
speed and altitude records for the time, including altitude (18 m), duration (8 minutes 45 seconds) and distance flown (1,078 m).
However, during the Depression, in which the fascist government of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
concentrated on "standard" production items, the company collapsed in 1932, and D'Ascanio went to work for Enrico Piaggio
Enrico Piaggio
-Life:Piaggio was born in Pegli, which at that the time was an independent municipality. He graduated with a degree in Economics from University of Genoa in 1927. and would later receive an honorary degree in engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1951....
at his fathers company, designing numerous successful high-speed adjustable pitch propellors for Piaggio Aero
Piaggio Aero
Piaggio Aero Industries is an aircraft manufacturing company born from the former Rinaldo Piaggio SPA, an Italian company. The company is one of the world's oldest airplane manufacturers, and its planes have been well known from the early days of aviation history.Today, Piaggio Aero Industries is...
. His work was considered so important during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was promoted to General in the Regia Aeronautica
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946...
, and restarted helicopter development under instruction from President of Piaggio S. p. A.
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
Enrico Piaggio
Enrico Piaggio
-Life:Piaggio was born in Pegli, which at that the time was an independent municipality. He graduated with a degree in Economics from University of Genoa in 1927. and would later receive an honorary degree in engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1951....
from 1942.
After the war
Like many Italians, D'Ascanio found himself unemployed - the Piaggio factory was destroyed through Allied bombing. Worse still, Italy was under an agreement not to research or produce military or aerospace technology for a ten-year period, and so he was unemployable in Italy. Approached by pre-war tubing manufacturer Ferdinando InnocentiFerdinando Innocenti
Ferdinando Innocenti , born in Pescia, Italy, was the founder of the Innocenti company and was the creator of the Lambretta motorscooter.Innocenti started working as an assistant to a blacksmith in 1907...
, who saw the future of cheap private transport and decided to produce a motor scooter – competing on cost and weather protection against the ubiquitous motorcycle.
The Vespa
The main stimulus for the design style of the proposed LambrettaLambretta
Lambretta can refer to:* Lambretta, a petrol-powered scooter made by Innocenti* Lambretta , a clothing brand* Lambretta , a Swedish rock band* The Lambrettas, a British mod revival band...
dated back to Pre-WWII Cushman
Cushman
Cushman is a manufacturer of industrial vehicles, personal vehicles, and other custom vehicles, including parking patrol auto rickshaws.- Models :* Haulster, small industrial multi-purpose truck.* Truckster* Bellhop Series, golf carts....
scooters made in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, USA. These olive green scooters were in Italy in large numbers, ordered originally by the US Government as field transport for the Paratroops
Paratrooper
Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...
and Marines. The US military had used them to get around Nazi defence tactics, destroying roads and bridges during the Battle of Monte Cassino
Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...
and in the Dolomites
Dolomites
The Dolomites are a mountain range located in north-eastern Italy. It is a part of Southern Limestone Alps and extends from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley...
and the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n border areas.
The motor scooter
Ferdinando Innocenti gave D'Ascanio the job of designing a simple, robust and affordable vehicle. The vehicle had to be easy to drive for both men and women, be able to carry a passenger, and not get its driver's clothes dirty. D'Ascanio, who hated motorcycles, designed a revolutionary vehicle. It was built on a spar-frame with a handlebar gear change, and the engine mounted directly on to the rear wheel. The front protection "shield" kept the rider dry and clean in comparison to the open front end on motorcycles. The pass-through leg area design was geared towards all user groups, including women, whose skirts made riding a motorcycle a challenge. The front fork, like an aircraft's landing gear, allowed for easy wheel changing. The internal mesh transmission eliminated the standard motorcycle chain, a source of oil, dirt, and aesthetic misery. This basic design allowed a series of features to be deployed on the frame, which would later allow quick development of new models.However, D'Ascanio fell out with Innocenti, who wanted to produce his frame from rolled tubing, rather than a stamped spar frame, thereby allowing him to revive both parts of his pre-war company. General D'Ascanio dissociated himself from Innocenti, and took his design directly to Enrico Piaggio, who produced the spar-framed Vespa
Vespa
Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A...
from 1946. Innocenti, faced by design problems and production issues surrounding his tube frame, produced the Lambretta from 1947. In the decades of its history, the Vespa scooter has become one of the most famous brand designs worldwide, with 16 million units produced in 130 different models as of 2005.
After Vespa
In 1948 D'Ascanio attended an international congress for the helicopter in Philadelphia, where he was hailed as a true pioneer. He continued to work for Piaggio, tweaking designs for the Piaggio PD 3, and in 1952 the Piaggio PD4. However, restricted legally through neutrality agreements and financially through reconstruction, Piaggio had by now fallen behind the developments of the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
Sikorsky Aircraft
The Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. Its parent company is United Technologies Corporation.-History:...
, and few of D'Ascanio helicopter designs or aeronautical developments made it beyond the drawing board.
In 1964 D'Ascanio left Piaggio to join the Agusta Group
Agusta
Agusta is an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It is based in Samarate, Northern Italy. It is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first airplane in 1907...
of Cascina Costa, by then the largest Italian manufacturer of helicopters. In 1969 D'Ascanio designed a small training helicopter, the Agusta ADA, which could be modified for agricultural use - but it was not developed, due to Agusta's commitment to re-equipping the Italian military.
Author of numerous scientific publications, published between 1954 and 1980, he was professor of design of machines and projects at the University of Pisa
University of Pisa
The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...
between 1937 (when he was an employee of Piaggio) and 1961. D'Ascanio, for his services to Italy and aeronautical development, was decorated with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
by the President of the Italian Republic
President of the Italian Republic
The President of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy and, as such, is intended to represent national unity and guarantee that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president's term of office lasts for seven years....
.
Always disappointed by the fact he was publicly recognised for his associations with the Vespa motor scooter over his developments and patents in the world of aviation, D'Ascanio died in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
on August 6, 1981.
External links
- Corradino D'Ascanio at Wikitalia