L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 11 L'Italo-Americano A nd to think that it was to be only an interlude of imagination in compari- son to the work undertaken on the helicopter project. N o t e v e n C o r r a d i n o D'Ascanio, father of the Vespa, would ever have imagined the success of his creation, which began on April 23, 1946 in the factories of Pontedera on behalf of the Piaggio company. This was the only company that had believed in the engineer from Abruzzi and they allowed him to grow, alongside his dreams to fly, in an even more stable eco- nomic project. T o d a y , t h a t f i r s t o d d l y shaped motorcycle, but obvious- ly linked to flying, celebrated its 70th year and has no intention of going into storage. It might be the only mechanical means that continues undaunted to pro- pose itself without any fear of dismissal. At the point where the Fiat 500, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroen 2CV and the Renault 4 have given up, the V e s p a c o n t i n u e s t o p l o u g h through the roads, along side of its worker cousin, the Ape (Bee) responsible for heavy transport a n d b i g j o b s o n t h e m o s t impassable ground. C o r r a d i n o D ' A s c a n i o w a s born in Popoli in the province of Pescara in 1891 and as a mere adolescent he became interested i n a e r o n a u t i c a l s c i e n c e . Fascinated by this pioneering world, in 1906 he built a glider on his own, attempting to put into practice his observations on the flight of birds. We are right at the debut of aviation. Just three years after the first flight of the Wright brothers, the young D'Ascanio began to fol- low his zeal for planning with great interest and finished his university studies with a degree in industrial engineering from the Politecnico of Torino. Sent t o t h e f r o n t d u r i n g t h e F i r s t World War, the engineer did not stop and created the first instal- lation of a radio transmitter and receiver on an Italian aircraft. He also performed the first test of the autopilot invented by L.B. Sperry, on an Italian air- craft, an SP Pomilio. A f t e r t h e w a r , D ' A s c a n i o d e d i c a t e d h i m s e l f t o t a l l y t o designing his first aircraft, an opportunity offered to him by the Pomilio production work- shops of Torino, and for whom he designed a fast plane. The e n g i n e e r e m i g r a t e d t o t h e United States with the company and at the Allison Experimental Vespa: Italy's most celebrated scooter turns 70 Vespa scooter parked in the street of Rome— Photo by 3290162_clashot W o r k s i n I n d i a n a p o l i s , h e designed three different types of a i r p l a n e s : a l i g h t b o m b e r , a reconnaissance aircraft, and a military fighter jet. When the P o m i l i o c o m p a n y e n d e d i t s activities in America, it dragged into the abyss all those who had followed them in their adven- t u r e , a n d a m o n g t h e m w a s D'Ascanio, following an attempt at an entrepreneurial adventure w i t h h i s f r i e n d V e n i e r o D'Annunzio (son of the poet, Gabriele D'Annunzio). D'Ascanio returned to Italy d e t e r m i n e d t o a c h i e v e h i s dream: the helicopter. The boy from the Abruzzi region won his challenge and in 1928 he created the first ever Italian helicopter and, in 1930, the first aircraft designed to shatter the record breakers of height, distance and d u r a t i o n o f f l i g h t . I t w a s Senator Giovanni Agnelli who had an intuition for his great potential and decided to jump into the business but with no success, because of the exorbi- tant request of an engineer who was his colleague, a so-called Trojani. It was this wrong deci- sion that deprived Italy the tech- n i c a l l e a d e r s h i p o f t h i s n e w aeronautical vehicle and stored that splendid prototype in an abandoned hangar in the middle of nowhere in Rome, destined to get moldy in total oblivion of the people. D'Ascanio never abandoned his dreams and between 1932 and 1939, produced very impor- tant patents in the aviation and in the electronically field. In 1943, D'Ascanio completed a new prototype, the P.D.2, on behalf of Piaggio, which, how- ever, never saw the light. The bombing of Pontedera, in fact, destroyed much of the industry, forcing its directors to move to Biella, and leaving an isolated D'Ascanio in Tuscany because of the armistice. There will never again be s u c c e s s f o r t h e h e l i c o p t e r s branded Italy. However, what remained was Piaggio and the trust that the company had in the t a l e n t o f t h e e n g i n e e r f r o m Abruzzi. Enrico Piaggio looked curiously at the project of a new m o t o r c y c l e . B e c a u s e o f t h e s o u n d o f t h e e n g i n e a n d t h e form of body, he compared it to a wasp (vespa) and marketed it with that name. The first scooter finally gave his creator fame, without stopping his creative s t r e a k . I n s t e a d , t h e V e s p a became a legend and still today i t m a i n t a i n s i t s a l m o s t unchanged form that made it famous. D'Ascanio ended his long life in 1981, but the D'Ascanio m y t h i s f a r f r o m o v e r . H i s Vespa and his Ape have motor- ized millions of people (and continue to do so), carrying men t h r o u g h t h e d u s t y s t r e e t o f Bombay and transporting mer- chandise on the plateaus of the Andes; his scooters have starred in major films (...unforgettable is the scene in Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn!) or they have represented the first exam- ple of peddler trade (in Sicily the Ape still today represents a true cult). Vespa and Ape are s t i l l o n t h e m o v e , c a r r y i n g throughout the world the brand Made in Italy. D'Ascanio's scooters have starred in major films like "Roman Holiday" Corradino D'Ascanio LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE GENEROSO D'AGNESE Translation by Angela Di Nardo

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