Corradino D ' Ascanio General Corradino D ' Ascanio ( Popoli , Pescara February 1 , 1891 – Pisa , August 6 , 1981 ) 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 . World War I . After graduating in 1914 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 , 1915 , 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 . In 1916 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 1918 with key staff , including D ' Ascanio , to Indianapolis in the United States 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 patents . 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 , 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 , 078 m ) . D ' Ascanio ' s altitude record would be " unofficially " shattered by the Soviet - built TsAGI - 1EA single - rotor helicopter in mid - August 1932 , with a 605 meters ( 1 , 985 ft ) altitude achievement . However , during the Depression , in which the fascist government of Benito Mussolini concentrated on " standard " production items , the company collapsed in 1932 , and D ' Ascanio went to work for Enrico Piaggio at his fathers company , designing numerous successful high - speed adjustable pitch propellors for Piaggio Aero . 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 S . p . A . Enrico Piaggio 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 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 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 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 American Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation , 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 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 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 by the President of the Italian Republic . 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 on August 6 , 1981 .