Enrico Forlanini
Encyclopedia
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
, hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
s and dirigibles
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
. He was born in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. His older brother Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini
Carlo Forlanini was an Italian physician.In 1870 he earned his medical degree from the University of Pavia, where he studied as an alumnus of Borromeo College, and afterwards joined the staff of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan...
was a famous Italian physician (1847–1918).
Early life
Enrico was born to Francesco Forlanini, a notable physician and director of the Ospedale Fatebenefratelli in Milan. After elementary school he attended one of the three Milan Regie Scuole Tecniche, in 1863 he entered the military college of Turin, to pass to its military academy in 1866. Two years later he passed to the Scuola di Applicazione Artiglieria e Genio where he graduated with a diploma in 1870.Helicopter model
In 1877, he developed an early helicopter powered by a steam engineSteam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
. It was the first of
its type that rose to a height of 13 meters, where it remained for some 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in Milan.
Industry
Then, he worked in ForlìForlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...
, in a society named Società Anonima Forlivese per l’illuminazione a gas e per la fonderia di ferro.
Airships
Later he designed and built a series of dirigibles, notably, designed in 1901 and launched in 1909, the Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
that he dedicated to the famous Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
inventor and, in 1912, the Città di Milano, dedicated to his beloved home town. The latter showed exceptionally good characteristics of stability
Flight dynamics
Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...
and controllability
Controllability
Controllability is an important property of a control system, and the controllability property plays a crucial role in many control problems, such as stabilization of unstable systems by feedback, or optimal control....
that won Forlanini international renown. A further four airships were constructed: F3, F4, F5 and F6. A seventh, named Omnia Dir was only completed after his death and never flew.
Hydrofoils
During testing on Lake Maggiore
Lake Maggiore
Lake Maggiore is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest of Italy and largest of southern Switzerland. Lake Maggiore is the most westerly of the three great prealpine lakes of Italy, it extends for about 70 km between Locarno and Arona.The climate is mild...
in 1906, this craft reached a top speed of 68 km/h (42.5 mph). He also tested a hydrofoil with a 25 hp steam engine but this only achieved around 50 kilometres per hour (31.1 mph) in 1908-1909.
Legacy
Forlanini obtained a number of British and American patents on his ideas and designs, most of which were aimed at seaplane applications.He died in 1930 while still working on the design of the Omnia Dir airship.
Milan has dedicated to him its city airport, also named Linate Airport
Linate Airport
Linate Airport is one of the three major airports of Milan, Italy, along with Malpensa Airport and Orio al Serio Airport. Due to its closer proximity to Milan—it is east southeast of the city, compared with Malpensa, which is northwest of the city—it is mainly used for domestic and short-haul...
, as well as the nearby park.