Piero Magni (

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 ...

, December 22, 1898 – April 17, 1988) was an Italian aeronautical engineer. He was heavily involved with the

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...

later in his career. Magni contributed to the development of variable incidence and canard wings. His work extended beyond design, as he also became an entrepreneur. He founded a company focused on the licensed production of gliders, and later took on the responsibility of aircraft auditing for the

Regia Aeronautica The Royal Italian Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') (RAI) was the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Regio Esercito, Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was ...

. He designed the Vittoria 1924 sport plane. Magni also succeeded in manufacturing some designs and patented a

cowling A cowling (or cowl) is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings ...

for

radial engines The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is cal ...

that improved the aircraft's aerodynamics efficiency. This innovative cowling not only enhanced aerodynamic penetration but also provided an effective system for regulating the engine's temperature. This project, known as Anello Magni, was later further developed by the

, and become widely known as

NACA cowling The NACA cowling is a type of aerodynamic Aircraft fairing, fairing used to streamliner, streamline radial engines installed on airplanes. It was developed by Fred Weick of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1927. It was a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magni, Pietro 1898 births 1988 deaths Engineers from Genoa History of aviation 20th-century Italian engineers