Professor Luigi Pascale Receives The Flieger ‘Award Of Honor’
One of General Aviation’s most prestigious prizes the Flieger ‘Award of Honor’ was bestowed on Professor Luigi Pascale, Tecnam’s President and Head of Design, this evening at the Aero Friedrichshafen General Aviation expo.
One of General Aviation’s most prestigious prizes the Flieger ‘Award of Honor’ was bestowed on Professor Luigi Pascale, Tecnam’s President and Head of Design, this evening at the Aero Friedrichshafen General Aviation expo.
At a special ceremony hosted by Germany’s Flieger magazine, over 100 key members of the global General Aviation community gathered to see Tecnam’s Professor Luigi Pascale receive the ‘Award of Honor’ from Thomas Borchert, Editor-in-Chief of Flieger.
The inspiration behind all of Tecnam’s superlative aircraft, Luigi “Gino” Pascale is a native of Naples, Italy, whose passion for aviation began during the 1930’s when with his brother Giovanni “Nino” they won many model plane races. The two brothers built their first aircraft, the P48 Astore, which flew on the 2nd of April 1951.
At the time that Professor Luigi had just graduated with a Master’s Degree as a Mechanical Engineer (the Department of Aeronautical Engineering was created later by the Professor Pascale himself) he started his career at the University of Naples as assistant to Professor Umberto Nobile. Nobile was also an outstanding aviation character, undertaking the first expedition to North Pole with an airship.
Gaining his Pilot’s License is 1951; Professor Pascale designed and built a number of competition winning ‘race’ planes including the P55 Tornado. Professor Pascale has over 3000 flight hours and has special permission to perform test flights.
Founding PARTENAVIA in 1957 he then began building General Aviation planes ‘for everyone’. Aircraft such as the P64 Oscar and P66 became both bestsellers and firm favorites as training aircraft and led to his innovative P68 light twin design.
In 1986 the two Pascale brothers founded TECNAM, and Professor Pascale’s first design the P92 has now flown 200,000 hours with over 2,500 in service worldwide.
Professor Pascale has received numerous accolades and awards including the
‘Paul Tissandier diploma’ from Federation Aeronautique Internationale, and the ‘Aeroplano d’Argento’ and has held membership of a number of aviation boards and committees including;
President of the Technical Committee of the Registro Aeronautico Italiano,
Member of the Administrative Board of the Italian Space Agency,
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Italian Aerospace Research Center.
At his acceptance speech, Professor Pascale remarked “I especially appreciate your recognition that from my earliest days I have been both very passionate and dedicated to aviation. I am always designing and creating aircraft in my mind but even more so with my heart. Thank you.”
Despite receiving this special accolade, Professor Pascale will still be behind his desk next week leading Tecnam’s Research and Design team, working on his very latest aircraft design the next-generation 11 seat Tecnam P2012 Traveller.
With his timeless passion for flying, has witnessed Tecnam’s transformation into the world’s largest producer of both General Aviation and Light Sport Aircraft that delivers a new aircraft every working day.
For more information on the Tecnam extensive range of aircraft, please visit www.tecnam.com or contact your local dealer or Walter Da Costa, Tecnam Sales and Marketing, tel 34 616 481143, w.dacosta@tecnamspain.es
