Corradino D'Ascanio Father Of The Scooter

Corradino D’Ascanio – father of the scooterC orradino D’Ascanio was responsible not just for the original Vespa scooter, and by association the creation of not just one of the biggest brands in motorcycling.

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He was largely responsible for its chief rival, Innocenti’s ‘Lambretta’ – not bad for a designer who actually had little interest in motorcycles and whose primary focus was aeroplanes, helicopters and aeronautics….

… although it was probably that very dislike of motorcycles which helped shape his scooter design in the first place!

D’Ascanio was born in 1891 in Popoli, Italy, had a passion for flight and mechanical design from a very early age (to the extent of even designing his own glider at the age of 15), then later studied mechanical engineering at the ‘Politecnico di Torino’ (Polytechnic of Turin).

After graduation in 1914, D’Ascanio joined the military working largely as a designer, then, following the end of WW1, he returned to Popoli. There he began to specialise in early helicopter control mechanisms and, after setting up his own company in 1925, built one of the very first successful helicopters, a twin rotor design, in 1930.