The smart invention of VESPA

Did you know that the smart invention “The scooter” comes from the aircraft industry to reconvert?

It’s 1947, the Italian aviation industry must be transformed after the war effort, in the warehouses used for motors arrangement of planes in runway, the idea: a simpler means of car (hence the use of the spare tire), easy to use (change to the handlebars, seat, leg protection).

The Vespa, the Italian culture is transferred into bodywork-chassis with steel casing, vaguely shaped aerodynamic streamline.

The Vespa (which means “wasp” in Italian) was made to create a viable alternative to the automobile for the masses. To eliminate the chain he imagined a vehicle with a stress-bearing body and direct mesh; to make it easier to ride, he put the gear lever on the handlebar; to make tyre changing easier he designed not a fork, but a supporting arm similar to an aircraft carriage.

Corradino D’Ascanio only needed a few days to refine his idea and prepare the first drawings of the Vespa, first produced in Pontedera in April 1946. It got its name from Enrico Piaggio himself who, looking at the MP6 prototype with its wide central part where the rider sat and the narrow “waist”, exclaimed, “It looks like a wasp!” And so the Vespa was born.

As the war drew to a close, Enrico Piaggio (the founder) studied every possible solution to evolve this lucky concept.

Florence Design School – The smart invention of VESPA: the real italian scooter.