Luigi Ferraro (3 November 1914, Quarto dei Mille – 5 January 2006,

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

) was an officer of the Royal Italian Navy and pioneer of Italian submarine warfare, most notable for his service with the commando frogman unit Decima Flottiglia MAS. In 1943 in Turkey he attacked four ships carrying chromium ore. He was decorated with the gold medal for military valor for having sunk three enemy ships alone. Ferraro designed a number of innovations in scuba diving equipment for Cressi-sub, and in 1962 with Carlos Reinberg, he founded Technisub, a manufacturer of various underwater diving equipment. Cressi made and launched Luigi Ferraro's two most important innovations during the early 1950s. One was the "Pinocchio"

diving mask A diving mask (also half mask, dive mask or scuba mask) is an item of diving equipment that allows Underwater diving, underwater divers, including scuba diving, scuba divers, free-diving, free-divers, and snorkeling, snorkelers, to see clearly u ...

, the first mask with a rubber nose pocket enabling the fingers to pinch the nostrils, facilitating ear equalization. The other was the Cressi Rondine, the first swimming fin featuring a closed-heel foot pocket, a toe opening and a blade set at an angle from the plane of the sole of the foot, which improved both wearing comfort and hydrodynamic efficiency.

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* * 1914 births 2006 deaths Regia Marina personnel of World War II Military personnel from Genoa Underwater diving equipment manufacturers {{Italy-mil-bio-stub