When Italians first soared

 

    The First International Soaring Concourse in Italy

    1924, Asiago. One hundred years ago.

    by Vincenzo Pedrielli

    Engine-less flying began to be known in Italy only in the Spring of 1924. Until then, Italians had only seen mentions of it on German and French publications. In that year, the Lega Aerea Nazionale (Italian National Aviation League), with the fervid cooperation of the “La Gazzetta dello Sport” newspaper, announced the first Italian international soaring meeting.

    Finding a suitable place for the meeting turned out to be the greatest difficulty. Accordingly, a prize was instituted to be awarded to anyone who would suggest an appropriate location for the purpose. A terrain with the right conformation, swept by winds of sufficient strength was required.

    Many people, passionate about flight, began searching but, for a variety of reasons, the proposed locations were one by one discarded. Eventually, the only remaining place in the list was on Mount Sìsemol near Asiago (in the Vicenza province). The terrain was certainly not ideal, due to the evident scars left by the First World War; but the atmospheric conditions turned out to be very good, with sufficient winds until the month of September. The League set a date in August for the concourse, the month judged to be the most suitable for this kind of flight.

The chart shows the location of the Asiago Plateau in northeastern Italy

    Although there were several months to prepare the aircraft,  many of the university student groups that had signed up for the contest withdrew due to lack of money and for technical problems. Only one, based in Pavia, showed they were truly motivated to participate in the concourse and determined to overcome every obstacle.

    Nevertheless, a few months from the set starting date, the university students from Pavia and other Italian participants were not yet ready. The Lega Aerea Nazionale decided, therefore, to postpone the event and then postponed it a second time, so the event was set for October; a month that straddles the warm summer and cold winter months, which is too temperate for creating winds strong enough for soaring flight. Therefore, the first Asiago competition did not take place in the best weather conditions because of the season and the somewhat unsuitable terrain.

    It was only a few months before the beginning of the concourse and there still was no glider in sight. Training for the contest in Italy had not begun either. As far as the aircraft were concerned, only some details about the new flying techniques were known in Italy, learned through photographs, foreign magazines and news reports.

    The students at the University of Pavia were among the first ones who got excited about the program of the Asiago contest and decided that they wanted to participate for sure. Many difficulties had to be overcome, among which was the main problem that always hinders every student initiative, that is, the lack of funds. God willing, after a thousand false starts and having somewhat overcome the initial problems and the ones that followed, the students from Pavia managed to get two aircraft ready for the contest: the Goliardìa (Goliardy), designed by Dr. Emanuele Cambilargiu, and the Febo Paglierini, donated to the Pavia students by the Ditta Gabardini, a company based in Cameri (Novara).

The Goliardìa with Franco Canavesi, Emanuele Cambilargiu, designer of the aircraft onboard and, standing, Ettore Cattaneo 

    Taking advantage of the end of the 1924 German Rhön soaring season, the Lega Aerea Nazionale invited to Asiago a few famous German sailplane pilots. The Italian League guaranteed to cover all insurance and transportation costs of four German aircraft: the Der Alte Dessauer (the Old Dessauer), the Moritz, the D-9 Konsul, the two-seater Deutschland and their pilots: Otto Fuchs, Arthur Martens and Fritz Papenmeyer. Herman Winter, who belonged to the Akaflieg Berlin Akademische Fliegergruppe, the university association of German pilots founded in 1920, joined the group with his flying-wing sailplane B3 Charlotte.

The transportation of the German sailplane Der Alte Dessauer through the streets of Asiago, and the cover of the rulebook of the contest 

    The arrival of the German pilots was not just a juxtaposition of their extensive flying experience to the almost total lack of experience of the Italians. The Germans were meant to provide a model. They presented a line of perfect, well-developed and tested aircraft. Moreover, their personal experience with soaring dated back many years, and every comparison would have been inopportune.

The flying-wing B3 Charlotte of the Akaflieg Berlin

    The students from Pavia University, who they had given themselves the difficult task of promoting soaring flight in Italy, felt the weight of this first audacious test.

Another image of the Goliardìa

    Other student groups from Milan, Turin, Genoa and other places were not able to persevere in the face of the difficulties and quit. But, notwithstanding the big handicap that separated the Pavia students from the German contestants, the students managed to defend their colors with dignity. For example, the sailplane Goliardìa reached the highest altitude recorded at the Sìsemol mountain location. The Febo Paglierini, after a superb launch by Franco Segrè, established the Italian distance record, taking off from the heights of Mazze and landing in Fara Vicentino, after a 12’ flight covering 3.85 miles (km 6,2). But it is superfluous to say that all the first national Italian soaring records were set during the Asiago contest (because those were the first Italian soaring records ever. ndt).

The Febo Paglierini on the launch pad

    The Asiago competition had the great merit of launching soaring in Italy. The final account of those fifteen days in 1924, although it did not contribute much in terms of knowledge, at least pointed out the reasons why the result had not been a better one: The choice of the location had not been the best, because of the uneven terrain and the almost total lack of wind during the days of the competition. So, all the attempted flights were little more than glides. And the season – late October – was not the most propitious one.

Martens and Papenmeyer in the Deutschland

    Soaring flight, that was almost unknown in Italy at the time, revealed itself, to all who watched the Asiago competition to be a very brilliant new sport that united the beauty of the mountains with the exciting allure of flight.

    The lesson learned from Asiago were beneficial. Towards the end of 1925, funds were secured to begin construction of a new Italian sailplane from a design of the Dr. Ugo Abate. The new aircraft was designated G.P.1, from the initials of Giovanni Pirelli, a student who had been killed in an air crash. In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, much store was set by the experience acquired in the first Italian International Soaring Contest.

D-9 Konsul

    This is a translation, from Italian, of an article that first appeared on the magazine Ali Antiche, the publication of the G.A.V.S., an Italian aviation association that restores and preserves historical aircraft.

    A special thank you to Janice Jenkins for editing the English version.

    Your comment, as usual, will be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Leonardo Pavese