THE URBAN S. HIRSCH III COLLECTION The most successful scooter design in history has its roots in an early 1880s lumber yard in Genoa. The Piaggio family originally supplied wood to furniture makers in that Italian shipping hub and soon turned to outfitting luxurious ships with furniture and cabinetry of their own. Young Rinaldo Piaggio pivoted at the turn of the century to build rail carriages and hired a team of engineers to supplement his craftsmen, and by 1915, Piaggio & Co. began outfitting seaplanes for the Italian military. During World War I, that grew to building boats and air/ seaplanes under license, then designing and building planes outright as demand grew later in the war. Piaggio carried on developing its aero division after the war, taking over the Pegna-Bonmartini aviation company and its workforce in 1919. Aero engineer Giovanni Pegna was part of the deal, and was the first aircraft designer to deeply impact the fortunes of Piaggio & Co, designing aircraft that took world speed records and famous air races. He would not be the last. In 1924, Piaggio acquired Costruzione Meccaniche Nazionali (CMN) in Pontadera, near Florence, which gave them the capacity to produce increasingly sophisticated aircraft as well as trucks, buses, trams, etc. With CMN came another talented aero engineer: Corradino d’Ascanio; while he was a giant of Italian aviation, d’Ascanio would become much better known for a vehicle that held little charm for him: a scooter. Before World War II was over in Italy, Rinaldo’s son Enrico Piaggio looked to the future and what products might salvage their company. He had the notion that a small vehicle, similar to the Cushman Model 53 Airborne scooters that had been parachuted onto Italian soil, would prove popular during postwar reconstruction. In 1944, Piaggio engineers Vittorio Casini and Renzo Spolti designed a prototype, the MP5 or Paperino (duckling—to compete with the Fiat Topolino), that featured an enclosed motor, a forward splashguard, handlebar- mounted controls and small wheels. But it had to be straddled, so it was not what Enrico wanted. Meanwhile, Innocenti, who made steel tubing, had hired Corradino d’Ascanio to design a scooter, and he produced a radical design with a monocoque chassis and shapely pressed-steel bodywork. But Innocenti demanded a tube frame, so d’Ascanio walked to Piaggio with his drawings; it was as if he had heard Enrico Piaggio’s design brief. He was re-hired immediately, and work commenced building a prototype: the MP6 of 1945. The prototype was a success, and with a few modifications and improvements, Piaggio commenced production in April 1946 of what the company dubbed Vespa 98, for its narrow waist, wasp-like tail section and 98cc 2-stroke, single-cylinder air-cooled motor. The foundation was laid for the Vespa scooter, which is still recognizably in production today, with many millions sold. Urban Hirsh’s 2006 Vespa is a modern classic, with a 149cc OHC single- cylinder motor producing 12 HP and utilizing an automatic transmission. It’s the easiest form of motorcycling, and the least intimidating, which is why so many beginners start with scooters, and many simply stay with them. Urban turned to Vespas for exactly the same reason, for a light and lively urban runabout, which remains in terrific condition. S147 2006 Vespa Piaggio
