1. General Corradino D'Ascanio was an Italian aeronautical engineer.
11 Facts About Corradino D'Ascanio
1. 2.
Corradino 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 glider which he would launch from the hills near his home town.
3.
In 1916 Corradino D'Ascanio was assigned to join Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing.
4.
On his return to Italy after a year in 1919, Corradino D'Ascanio again settled in Popoli, focused on the control mechanisms for helicopters, through which he derived a number of patents.
5.
However, during the Depression, in which the fascist government of Benito Mussolini concentrated on "standard" production items, the company collapsed in 1932, and Corradino D'Ascanio went to work for Enrico Piaggio at his father's company, designing numerous successful high-speed adjustable pitch propellers for Piaggio Aero.
6.
However, Corradino 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.
7.
General Corradino D'Ascanio dissociated himself from Innocenti, and took his design directly to Enrico Piaggio, who produced the spar-framed Vespa from 1946.
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Benito Mussolini 8.
In 1948 Corradino D'Ascanio attended an international congress for the helicopter in Philadelphia, where he was hailed as a true pioneer.
9.
Corradino D'Ascanio continued to work for Piaggio, tweaking designs for the Piaggio PD.
10.
In 1964 Corradino D'Ascanio left Piaggio to join the Agusta Group of Cascina Costa, by then the largest Italian manufacturer of helicopters.
11.
Always disappointed by the fact that, publicly, he was recognised more for his association with the Vespa motor scooter than for his inventions and patents in the world of aviation, Corradino D'Ascanio died in Pisa on 6 August 1981.