El Avión Más Ridículo De Mussolini: La Idea Robada Que Hoy Mueve Cada Avión Del Mundo

In 1932, the Italian engineer Luigi Stipa convinced Count Caproni to build the most ridiculous airplane ever seen: a cylinder with wings propelled by a 120-horsepower propeller enclosed in a Venturi tube. The world press ridiculed it, the military canceled the project after tests at Guidonia, and the prototype was scrapped in 1939. But the principle Stipa demonstrated that day—compressing air through a profiled duct to increase efficiency—is exactly the one used by the turbofan engines of every commercial airliner flying today. Stipa died in 1992 at the age of 92 without receiving any recognition, and in 2001 a replica built in Australia flew again, confirming every one of his original calculations. The photos used in this video are from archive.org and are in the public domain. @AlaLoca 00:00 The principle that powers every commercial airplane was born in the most ridiculous machine in aviation 01:00 Stipa, a military engineer obsessed with Bernoulli's principle, has a revelation 02:00 He works alone for months designing a propeller enclosed within a Venturi tube 03:00 Mussolini's Italy grants him funding to build his impossible prototype 04:00 Caproni accepts the commission and builds a cylinder with wings and only 120 horsepower 05:00 Antonini climbs into the cockpit and the engine starts with a sound no one had ever heard 06:00 The wheels leave the ground and the cylinder flies with disconcerting stability 07:00 Stipa demonstrates that the enclosed propeller works exactly as his calculations predicted 08:00 The military cancels the project without building a second prototype 09:00 France buys the license for the design but never builds anything 10:00 In 1940 the Caproni Campini takes off from the same airfield using similar principles 11:00 The Messerschmitt Me 262 and the Gloster Meteor compress air through profiled ducts 12:00 V1 bombs over London use a tube that compresses air to generate thrust 13:00 Experts reject Stipa's claims of patent theft 14:00 The war ends and Stipa's principles are recognized in every jet engine 15:00 Commercial aviation explodes with turbofans reminiscent of Stipa's Venturi tube 16:00 He writes obsessive letters to Boeing, Rolls-Royce, and General Electric without a favorable response 17:00 A lawyer tells him his claim is equivalent to inventing the automobile by tying wheels to a horse 18:00 Academic engineers begin to notice similarities to modern turbofans 19:00 Stipa accumulates clippings in an album while no museum wants to display his invention 20:00 He dies in 1992, at 92 years old, without anyone recognizing him as a pioneer 9:00 PM In Australia, Lynette Zuccoli decides to build a replica of the flying barrel 10:00 PM The replica faithfully reproduces the Venturi duct and the original paintwork 11:00 PM The barrel flies just as it did in 1932 and today hangs from the ceiling of a hangar in Toowoomba 12:00 AM The plaque tells the story of an engineer who died waiting for recognition that never came