Mon, May 17, 2010
Designer Of The F.8 Falco And Other Aircraft
ANN has learned that Stelio Frati, the Italian designer best
known for the F.8 Falco but with many other airplanes credited to
his drawing board (no CAD for him), passed away last Friday in
Italy at the age of 91.
Born in 1939, he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of
Milano, Italy, and immediately started his career as a freelance
designer. His first successful design was the F.4 Rondone, a 65 to
90 HP two seater which held for a while the world speed record for
his category at 169 mph in 1950. But his worldwide success was due
to the F.8 Falco, a real thoroughbred which, on 135 HP, could
exceed 200 mph. Later versions had a 150 HP Lycoming and were
capable of 210 mph. The Falco set a new standard for performance
and flying qualities, together with a very appealing look, which
made it a real winner. Built in wood, its structure required an
expert craftmanship that made it a Stradivarius-like prize item,
only 110 being built, of which at least 40 survive to this day. The
design has been adopted by the Sequoia Aircraft Company, located in
Richmond, Virginia, which markets to this day a semi-finished kit
with great success.
F.8 Falco
Frati followed the Falco with many other designs, most of
which were also built in small series, and all conforming to his
ideal of excellent performance, flying qualities and good looks. In
due course he converted to metal structures, and his first metal
design was the SF.250, a bigger and more powerful Falco, which in
its derivative form was built in series by SIAI Marchetti as the
SF.260, and enjoyed an exceptional worldwide success, mostly as a
military pilot trainer. More than 900 SF.260s were built, and the
type is still being produced by the Italian firm Aermacchi, which
incorporated SIAI Marchetti.
SF.260
Among the lesser known Frati designs, three light jet-powered
two-seaters (the F.5 of 1950, the Cobra of 1960 and the Jet Squalus
of 1980) were built and flown, but never reached series
production.
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