Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward - Tecnam.com

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Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward scrutiny. We had in fact to overcome many obstacles as all the material tests, the static tests ion the structure and the flight trials etc … So we submitted the regular request for supervision to the RAI office of Naples at the time managed by Ing. Ferdinando Bonifacio. To discuss on what to do we all went to the office in Via Giovanni Manna but the meeting turned out in a fight at the end of which we were almost chased by Ing. Bonifacio that required, according to us, ridiculous things. Obviously our way of thinking was not ready for such things and our passion badly supported every kind of obstacles that obstructed our target. Depressed we left the RAI office. That night we left our friends in Piazza della Borsa knowing perfectly that our exploit was becoming hard and difficult. Once we had finished the two wings we started the construction of the fuselage whose structure was entirely made by steel tubes and covered with fabric. We preferred this kind of simpler structure vs. the one in wood under evaluating the difficulty of the very delicate welding for that kind of material suitable to all the aeronautical constructions. We started the job with a welder of the Magnaghi Company given to us by Passardi. He used to come usually at night after work staying until late. Gino and I looking carefully how he was welding and thanks to his teaching we became quickly good welders being able to go on our own. The work proceeded well, becoming always more difficult and complex. The assembling of the wing and the fuselage had been particularly difficult: so that we had to build two supports to hold the wing in the correct position, putting the trellis fuselage in order that the predisposed joins fit together to be pierced and reamed. By this time the airplane took shape and the room turned out to be completely unable to contain it. Gino and I worked until late at night to solve all the problems that continuously arose. We couldn’t comply always with the drawings because of the continuous changes during the building. The flying controls were in fact rebuilt many times in between the distrust and the depression of many of us. In particular the aileron controls, made by a system of lever and rigid bar had been completely unused because of the excessive gap of all the transmission. These continuous technical misadventures caused in all of us serious doubts on the possibility to bring this enterprise to a successful conclusion, that is why sometimes someone of the group went away discouraged and for several days didn’t show up. Added to all these technical problems, there were also economical ones that were not always solvable. Fortunately in these days the RAI sent us the approval of the static calculations and this really important news helped us to create in all of us new strength and enthusiasm. Once we did the first step with the RAI, we had to face the static tests on the plane structure. Gino started right away to prepare all the test estimates while he was dedicated to the construction of the necessary equipment. We built in fact a support in steel tubes, 4 meters high to which we anchored the plane up side down so that on the wing underside the proof load could be fixed. The problem of how to create the load wasn’t so easy to solve. Nicola Genua made sew a lot of fabric bags that we filled with sand on the Coroglio beach. We carried them in stages to Via Tasso by a Topolino car and then we weighted them one by one accurately. On each bag we stamped the weight, dividing them in various lots ready to be loaded on the structure. To understand the difficulties off all these preparations we had to consider that all the airplane parts underwent static tests with the relevant equipment and calculation reports. All this lasted 8 months of continuous and exhausting work, always under the RAI supervision, whose commission was coming from Rome to be present to all the tests. The RAI cooperation was for us very helpful and precious. The Ing. Mossa and Di Giorgio came several times with other officers always accompanied by the Ing. Bonifacio form the RAI of Naples. The static test of the wing had been the most exciting, we loaded at stages more than a ton on the two wings and their structure sustained it with no damages, giving proof of big robustness. The Ing. Mossa congratulated Gino, the first static test and also the most important had succeeded; another step towards our goal. Motivated by this first success, we faced with energy the other tests. In a couple of months we completed the equipment and the tests on the empennage, ailerons, flaps, controls and fuselage. I would never be able to explain how hard this job was. The months went by and the airplane wasn’t finished because all our efforts were concentrated on the tests, whose outcome was always to be verified. Finally the program was completed; the RAI approved all the final reports of the tests. Giving us the go-ahead for the completion of the plane. At this point we had to solve the problem of the cradle. None of us was expert so we had to apply to a worker of the V Technical Unit of the Air Force stationed in Capodichino. His name was Tarantino and was very talented: within 7-8 days he finished the job framing the wings, the fuselage and the empennage. - 8 -
Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward By this time the airplane had taken shape and our dream was almost a reality. The final push was extremely fast. By now we were living only for this airplane. In fact in two months the airplane was finished, ready to be carried to the airport. In all these months of work we heard the news that some young men were building an airplane in a shop in Via Tasso and everybody was talking about it. Some journalists from the Roma newspaper came, and some days later on April 30 1950 they published a reportage on the newspaper. The airplane aroused such a great deal of interest that they asked to show it to the public. Gino and I accepted against our will, reluctant to all kind of externalism and also because all this would have caused a delay in the transfer of the plane to Capodichino. The transport to the exhibition at the Metropolitan Theatre was organized in the afternoon to avoid the traffic. The expectation was high and the entire group was in the shop for the last preparations since the morning. On Giulio Zampaglione’s car, a Balilla with 3 gears, we loaded the wing, transported in 2 times. The fuselage with the empennage was installed laying the tail small wheel in the trunk of Nicola Genua’s Topolino. Nicola was driving, Salvatore Gagliotta and I standing over the jump seats. Passardi and Marengo on two Vespe lined the way for the convoy. At a walking pace we covered Via Tasso, Via Crispi, Piazza Amedeo, Via dei Mille, arousing the interest of all the people we met. In front of the Metropolitan, amongst the crowd, we unloaded the airplane and finally we calmly assembled the wing inside the theatre, installing the plane in a corner of the big reception room at the entrance. During the 6 days of the exhibition a large crowd admired the homemade airplane. We were taking turns not to leave the plane unattended to avoid any kind of damages. In these days the movie with Anna-Maria Pierangeli “Domani è troppo tardi” (“Tomorrow is too late”) was screening and the actress was there for the premiere, visiting the airplane and taking place in the cockpit. They took many photographs that day, some of which had been published in newspapers and magazines. Luckily this parenthesis was quickly over. The airplane to avoid all the inconveniences of the first transportation was charged on a Magnaghi truck, put at our disposal by Rolando Passardi’s father and finally unloaded at the airport, were it was placed in the hangar of the Naples Aero Club. The most difficult and dangerous phase was about to start, distressing for Gino and me, at this point almost by us in going forward with the project. In a few days we placed in a flight order the P48 ASTORE. This was the name that we chose for our plane, P as our last name Pascale since the project was of my brother Gino, 48 the year of the project (1948), Astore bird of prey of high mountains. We started right away to try the engine and also the first taxiing to understand how the rudder bar and the breaks were responding. At the Aero Club we were welcomed with a lot of sympathy. The president, the colonel Marciano, really appreciated our machine and the vice-president Carlo De Cristoforo, director of the flight school and expert pilot offered himself to do some test of fast taxiing. We were undoubtedly surrounded by great sympathy, but there was also a lot of skepticism about this homemade plane. Moreover for the flight tests it was necessary to have a tester pilot and in Naples there wasn’t much to choose. In the mean time we continued to do taxiing tests always faster; one day the plane took off 8/10 meters after a fast taxiing with De Cristoforo and Gino on board . Then not confident to continue the flight he reduced suddenly the engine’s RPM so that the plane loosing speed hit the ground yawing to the left. The undercarriage had serious damages. Gino and I were really upset, we didn’t have the capability to pilot the plane and unfortunately nobody was willing to do it. We happened to know that the tester pilot Stoppani, son of the great Stoppani was in Naples to test a series of L5 overhauled by the IMAM of Capodichino. We turned to him praising to try the plane, thing that he accepted gladly. We thought that finally that was it and we prepared the test for the afternoon. Stoppani went on the plane; very quickly he raised the wheels from the ground and reduced the engine’s RPM. This time also our P48 didn’t fly. After almost a week we tried again with another pilot of the 4 th flight, the captain Tommasi who seemed animated by a great interest… He also did a fast taxiing test without leaving the ground … He told us in fact that to do the test it was necessary to have the authorization by the Ministry, being a military on duty. Unfortunately the authorization never arrived and we lost that way another month. In the mean time we enrolled to the Aero Club‘s piloting course to - 9 -
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Fratelli Pascale Story: from the 30s onward - Tecnam.com

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