Aeromedia
corso Giambone 46/18
10135 Torino (Italy)
Comandante Vignoli Demise
On 11 January 1997, Comandante Ferruccio Vignoli, aged 90, died in Turin. He was an aviation pioneer with more than 20.000 flight hours and, in the latter part of his career, a charismatic figure of the Turin's aviation scene. Flight licenced in 1924, Vignoli was a military test pilot in the thirties at the Guidonia experimental unit, 51st Wing fighter pilot during World War II and, from 1954 on, instructor at the Turin flying club till 1991, when he suffered injuries due to a flight accident.
Comandante Vignoli was the last living crew member of the SIAI Marchetti SM.75 PD I-TALO which was used, in 1939, to establish the world distance record, C class, with a flight of 12,935 kilometers, at an average speed of 226.192 kilometers per hour.
During its stay with 51st Wing, during the WW2 years, he shoot down three Spitfires in the Malta area, flying a Macchi MC.202 fighter.
(Aeromedia, June 1997)