1 March 2016
Arise, Professor Pascale! OK, so it’s not quite a knighthood but in Italy and in aeronautical engineering circles it’s pretty much the same thing. Luigi Pascale, at 92 still leading Tecnam’s R&D team, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering by Italy’s leading university, Seconda Universita of Naples.
The award ceremony was held at the Faculty of Engineering at the university in Aversa, Italy. The ceremony ended with the newly-appointed Aerospace Engineer Luigi Pascale giving his Lectio Magistralis (scholarly lecture). Ever forward looking, Professor Pascale’s talk was on the future of supersonic transport after Concorde.
Professor Luigi Pascale, centre, receiving his Honorary Doctorate from Naples University.
Pascale is a native of Naples, Italy. His passion for aviation began during the 1930s when with his brother Giovanni, he won many model plane races. The two brothers built their first aircraft, the P48 Astore, which flew in April 1951. Luigi earned his pilot’s licence the same year.
He founded Partenavia in 1957 and began building general aviation aircraft including the P64 Oscar, P66 and P68 light twin. In 1986 the two Pascale brothers founded Tecnam and the first was the P92 – more than 2,500 are now flying worldwide.
