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Tecnam
A Family Aircraft Company by Rich Pickett
After our article in the Twin & Turbine January 2022 issue on Tecnam’s largest twin, the P2012, I wanted to learn more about the Italian aircraft company that had designed such useful and innovative aircraft. Francesco Sferra, Tecnam’s sales and development manager invited us to Capua, Italy to see their operations firsthand. Capua is in the Caserta Province between Rome and Naples on Italy’s western coast. And by the end of the adventure, I had gained such an apprecia- tion of this unique aviation company, which happens to be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
As my wife Jane and I arrived at Tecnam’s headquarters at the Capua Airport (LIAU), we weren’t sure if the GPS was correct. It was an unassuming place in a beautiful setting, with olive and peach trees along the road. A small driveway led us to a gate. After parking, we were greeted with cappuccinos and led to a fascinating museum designed by Stephano Mavilio of Tecnam’s marketing and commu- nications department. The museum detailed the roots of Tecnam, including its predecessor, Partenavia, and the original founders, Luigi and Giovanni Pascale. It was an
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excellent preamble before learning more about Tecnam. Stephano has also compiled the history of the brothers and their aircraft innovations into a noteworthy book, “The Sky is the Limit: An Aviation Legacy”, which is highly recom- mended for anyone interested in aviation history.
To understand the ambition behind Tecnam’s products, it’s necessary to learn about the Pascale brothers, Luigi ‘Gino’ and Giovanni ‘Nino’. They were destined to work in aviation once they started flying model airplanes from their balcony in the 1920s, continuing by building progressively more complex gliders as they grew up. Living in Naples (Napoli) during World War II, they would salvage downed aircraft from the German and allied militaries, searching for components to build their models and later their first airplane. Mavilio’s book also chronicles the devastation they encountered during the war.
Just after World War II, they cobbled together a single Continental 65 horsepower engine from the remains of four engines that had been abandoned by the US Army Air Corps in Italy as scrap. A cylinder here, a case there, and somehow finding workable magnetos, they built a working