Count Giovanni Agusta (1879 – 1927) came from family of Sicilian origin. He formed the

Agusta Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first airplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot ...

company in 1923 which became part of

AgustaWestland AgustaWestland was an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica (now known as Leonardo). It was formed in July 2000 as an Anglo-Italian multinational company, when Finmeccanica ...

. He died in 1927. His son, Count Domenico Agusta, followed in the family business, AgustaWestland. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot of the Agusta aviation company at the end of the Second World War as a means to save the jobs of employees of the Agusta firm. In 1907, Agusta designed and built a

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

called the Ag1, and in 1912 he volunteered for the Italian-Turkish War in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

; in 1913 he was hired by

Caproni Caproni, also known as ''Società de Agostini e Caproni'' and ''Società Caproni e Comitti'', was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Its main base of operations was at Taliedo, near Linate Airport, on the outskirts of Milan. Founded by Giovanni ...

as an inspector in charge of delivering bombers to the front.

References

Italian engineers 1879 births 1927 deaths MV Agusta Agusta People of Sicilian descent {{italy-engineer-stub