Corradino d ascanio biography samples

Italian engineer (–)

General Corradino D'Ascanio (1 February in Popoli, Pescara – 6 August in Pisa) was an Italian aeronautical engineer. D'Ascanio designed the first production helicopter, for Agusta, and designed the first motor scooter for Ferdinando Innocenti. After the two fell out, D'Ascanio helped Enrico Piaggio produce the original Vespa.

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 glider which he would launch from the hills near his home town.

Corradino d ascanio biography samples for adults After the conflict ended, the terms of the peace settlement included a ban on both research and production in military or aerospace technology in Italy for 10 years, which meant effectively that D'Ascanio was unemployable. Like many Italians, D'Ascanio found himself unemployed—the Piaggio factory was destroyed through Allied bombing. References [ edit ]. From when he was a child he loved flying, a subject that he deepened by graduating in industrial engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin and voluntarily enrolling in the "Aviator Flights Battalion" Engineering Corps in Turin at the outbreak of World War I.

World War I

After graduating in in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, he enlisted in the voluntary division of the Italian Army entitled "weapon of Engineers, Division Battalion Aviatori" in Piedmont, where he was assigned the testing of airplane engines. Appointed sub-lieutenant on March 21, , D'Ascanio was sent to France to choose a rotary engine to be produced in Italy for the Corpo Aeronautico Militare, returning with an agreement to produce the Gnome et Rhône designed Le Rhône.

After a brief pilot training course in Corsica on a Farman MF.7, 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.^[1]

In D'Ascanio was assigned to join Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing.

O. Pomilio, 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 with key staff, including D'Ascanio, to Indianapolis in the United States to form the Pomilio Brothers Corporation.^[2]

Between the wars

On his return to Italy after a year in , D'Ascanio again settled in Popoli, focused on the control mechanisms for helicopters, through which he derived a number of patents.

In he founded a company with Baron Pietro Trojani, which commissioned by the Ministry dell'Aeronautica produced in 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,^[3] a concept that was later adopted by other helicopter designers, initially by the French Breguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire in , and still later by designs from both 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 at Ciampino Airport, this machine held modest Fédération Aéronautique Internationale speed and altitude records for the time, including altitude (18 m), duration (8 minutes 45 seconds) and distance flown (1, m).^[3][4] D'Ascanio's altitude record would be "unofficially" shattered by the Soviet-built, Yuriev-Cheremukhin TsAGI-1EA single-lift rotor helicopter in mid-August , with a meters (1,&#;ft) altitude achievement, and also possessed fore-and-aft tubular fuselage structures for similar "anti-torque" stabilization rotors.^[5]

However, during the Depression, in which the fascist government of Benito Mussolini concentrated on "standard" production items, the company collapsed in , and 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] His work was considered so important during World War II, he was promoted to General in the Regia Aeronautica, and restarted helicopter development under instruction from President of Piaggio Piaggio from

After the war

Like many Italians, D'Ascanio found himself unemployed—the Piaggio factory was destroyed through Allied bombing.

Corradino d ascanio biography samples The vehicle had to be easy to ride for both men and women, be able to carry a passenger, and not get its driver's clothes dirty. After a brief pilot training course in Corsica on a Farman MF. D'Ascanio's house in Popoli Travel tip: Visitors to Italy can learn more about D'Ascanio's work at to the Piaggio Museum at Pontedera, the industrial town in the province of Pisa in Tuscany, which is the headquarters of the Piaggio company, as well as of the Castellani wine company and the Amedei chocolate factory. Tools Tools.

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 Innocenti, 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 Lambretta dated back to Pre-WWII Cushman scooters made in Nebraska, USA. These olive green scooters were in Italy in large numbers, ordered originally by the US Government as field transport for the Paratroops and Marines. The US military had used them to get around Nazi defence tactics, destroying roads and bridges during the Battle of Monte Cassino and in the Dolomites and the Austrian 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 ride for both men and women, be able to carry a passenger, and not get its driver's clothes dirty.

Corradino d ascanio biography samples pdf Authority control databases. No comments:. Between the wars [ edit ]. He spent a year working in America immediately after the end of the First World War.

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.

Corradino d ascanio biography samples free Biography [ edit ]. In D'Ascanio attended an international congress for the helicopter in Philadelphia , where he was hailed as a true pioneer. This basic design allowed a series of features to be deployed on the frame, which would later allow quick development of new models. After graduating in in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Torino , he enlisted in the voluntary division of the Italian Army entitled "weapon of Engineers, Division Battalion Aviatori" in Piedmont , where he was assigned the testing of airplane engines.

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 from ^[7] Innocenti, faced by design problems and production issues surrounding his tube frame, produced the Lambretta from 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 different models as of

After Vespa

In 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 the Piaggio PD However, restricted legally through neutrality agreements and financially through reconstruction, Piaggio had by now fallen behind the developments of the AmericanSikorsky Aircraft Corporation, and few of D'Ascanio helicopter designs or aeronautical developments made it beyond the drawing board.^[1]

In D'Ascanio left Piaggio to join the Agusta Group of Cascina Costa, by then the largest Italian manufacturer of helicopters.

In 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.^[1]

Author of numerous scientific publications, published between and , he was professor of design of machines and projects at the University of Pisa between (when he was an employee of Piaggio) and D'Ascanio, for his services to Italy and aeronautical development, was decorated with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the President of the Italian Republic.^[1]

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, D'Ascanio died in Pisa on 6 August

References

• Bassi, Alberto – Flying Machines of Corradino D'Ascanio – Pub Milano,
• Marinacci, Sandro Abruzz – The flight of Vespa

Notes

External links