Airship—The American Dream by Quirico Filopanti, 1851

Abstract

The main purpose of the present paper is to answer the question, “Who invented the airship?” and to attribute the invention to Professor Quirico Filopanti (alias Giuseppe Barilli). The rediscovery of certain manuscripts and the link to two editions of an American newspaper dated January 1851 allow for this attribution. Filopanti wanted to make this machine to enable the migration of European people to the west coast of the U.S. in an inexpensive manner. The paper reports some biographic facts about the Inventor, including his willingness to be an engineer, and briefly lists his inventions, especially those of his period of banishment that have “re-emerged” out of the Archiginnasio manuscripts. After detailing Filopanti’s interest in balloons for studying atmosphere, some comments on his airship are reported. His brilliant idea that the future of flying was connected to the amount of power/weight that can possibly be put on board an aircraft is outlined. It is important to note the justness of this man, who believed in the power of the human mind. He had brilliant ideas on the necessity of enlarging the mechanical industry over the fashion industry and overcoming European fragmentation, envisioning a European Union, a very strange notion for those days.

P.G. Molari—Late professor of Machine Design in the University of Bologna.