|
Vespa
Vespa () is an Italian brand of scooters and mopeds manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian. The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy, to a full line of scooters and one of seven companies today owned by Piaggio. From their inception, Vespa scooters have been known for a painted, pressed steel body which combines, in a unified structure: a full cowling enclosure around the engine concealing dirt or grease, a flat floor panel protecting the feet, and a prominent front fairing to divert wind and rain. History After World War II, in light of its agreement to cease war activities with the Allies, Italy had its aircraft industry severely restricted in both capability and capacity. Piaggio emerged from the conflict with its Pontedera bomber plane plant demolished by bombing. Italy's crippled economy, and the disastrous state of its roads, were not immediately conducive to the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piaggio
Piaggio Group () is an Italian motor vehicle manufacturer, which produces a range of two-wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under five brands: Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi and Derbi. Its corporate headquarters are located in Pontedera, Italy. The company was founded by Rinaldo Piaggio in 1884, initially producing locomotives and railway carriages. Piaggio Group's subsidiaries employ a total of 7,053 employees and produced a total of 519,700 vehicles in 2014. The manufacturer has six research-and-development centres and operates in over 50 countries. History In 1882, Enrico Piaggio purchased land in Sestri Ponente (Genoa) to set up a timber yard. Two years later, in 1884, his 20-year-old son, Rinaldo Piaggio (1864–1938), founded Piaggio & C. The company initially built locomotives and railway carriages. In 1917, towards the end of World War I, Rinaldo Piaggio turned to the military sector: The company started to produce MAS anti-submarine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scooter (motorcycle)
A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame, a seat, a transmission that shifts without the operator having to operate a clutch lever, a platform for their feet, and with a method of operation that emphasizes comfort and fuel economy in automobiles, fuel economy. Elements of scooter design were present in some of the earliest motorcycles, and motor scooters have been made since at least 1914. More recently, scooters have evolved to include scooters exceeding 250cc classified as Maxi-scooters. The global popularity of motor scooters dates from the post-World War II introductions of the Vespa and Lambretta models in Italy. These scooters were intended to provide economical personal transportation (engines from ). The original layout is still widely used in this application. Scooter (motorcycle)#Maxi-scooter, Maxi-scooters, with larger engines from have been developed for Western markets. Scooters are popular for personal transportation par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corradino D'Ascanio
General Corradino D'Ascanio (1 February 1891 in Popoli, Pescara – 6 August 1981 in Pisa) was an Italian aeronautical engineer. D'Ascanio designed the first production helicopter, for Agusta, and designed the first motor scooter for Ferdinando Innocenti. After the two fell out, D'Ascanio helped Enrico Piaggio produce the original Vespa. Biography D'Ascanio had an early passion for flight and design: by the age of fifteen, after studying flying techniques and the ratio between weight and wingspan of some birds, he built an experimental glider which he would launch from the hills near his home town. World War I After graduating in 1914 in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Torino, he enlisted in the voluntary division of the Italian Army entitled "weapon of Engineers, Division Battalion Aviatori" in Piedmont, where he was assigned the testing of airplane engines. Appointed sub-lieutenant on March 21, 1915, D'Ascanio was sent to France to choose a rotary engine to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrico Piaggio
Enrico Piaggio (22 February 1905 – 16 October 1965) was an Italian industrialist. Life Piaggio was born in Pegli, which at that time was an independent municipality. His father was Rinaldo Piaggio, the founder of Piaggio. He graduated with a degree in economics from University of Genoa in 1927, and would later receive an honorary degree in engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1951. Piaggio and his brother Armando inherited the family engineering business on their father's death in 1938. This had initially manufactured rolling-stock but had moved into aircraft production by the outbreak of World War II. Their factory was seriously damaged by Allied bombing and was unable to continue aircraft production when the war ended. Enrico Piaggio took the decision to diversify into manufacturing Vespa scooters. This proved to be a far-sighted move, as Piaggio would eventually become one of the biggest manufacturers of two-wheel vehicles in the world. Piaggio had also be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey. The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by the unusual haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera, as it makes sisters exceptionally closely related to each other. However, the majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently. Females typically have an oviposit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Holiday (1953 Film)
''Roman Holiday'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Audrey Hepburn as a princess out to see Rome on her own and Gregory Peck as a reporter. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the film also won the Academy Award for Best Story and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The script was written by Dalton Trumbo and John Dighton, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit, and Ian McLellan Hunter front (identity), fronted for him. Trumbo's name was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003, and on December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored. Blacklisted director Bernard Vorhaus worked on the film as an assistant director under a pseudonym. The film was shot at the Cinecittà studios and location shooting, on location around Rome during the "Hollywood on the Tiber" era. The film opened the 14th Venice International Film Festival wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moped
A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. Historically, the term exclusively meant a similar vehicle with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typically travel only slightly faster than bicycles on public roads. Traditional mopeds are distinguishable by their pedals, similar to a bicycle. Some mopeds have a step-through frame design, while others have motorcycle frame designs, including a backbone and a raised fuel tank, mounted directly between the saddle and the head tube. Some resemble motorized bicycles, similar to modern ebikes. Most are similar to a regular motorcycle but with pedals and a crankset that may be used with or instead of motor drive. Although mopeds usually have two wheels, some jurisdictions classify low-powered three- or four-wheeled vehicles (including ATVs and go-kart) as a moped. In some countries, a moped can be any motorcycle with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two-stroke Engine
A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a four-stroke engine which requires four strokes of the piston in two crankshaft revolutions to complete a power cycle. During the stroke from bottom dead center to top dead center, the end of the exhaust/intake (or Scavenging (automotive), scavenging) is completed along with the compression of the mixture. The second stroke encompasses the combustion of the mixture, the expansion of the burnt mixture and, near bottom dead center, the beginning of the scavenging flows. Two-stroke engines often have a higher power-to-weight ratio than a four-stroke engine, since their power stroke occurs twice as often. Two-stroke engines can also have fewer moving parts, and thus be cheaper to manufacture and weigh less. In countries and regions with stringe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, Peck began appearing in stage productions, acting in over 50 plays and three Broadway theatre, Broadway productions. He first gained critical success in ''The Keys of the Kingdom (film), The Keys of the Kingdom'' (1944), a John M. Stahl–directed drama that earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He starred in a series of successful films, including romantic-drama ''The Valley of Decision'' (1944), Alfred Hitchcock's ''Spellbound (1945 film), Spellbound'' (1945), and family film ''The Yearling (1946 film), The Yearling'' (1946). He encountered lukewarm commercial reviews at the end of the 1940s, his performances including ''The Para ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
