On Friday morning, a call from our director warned me that a prototype of the AW-609 convertibles had fallen a few minutes earlier.
Not necessarily a plane crash must end in tragedy, but it was clear that this time the event was truly tragic. We were both faced with the inevitable fate of that crew, regardless of who was struck by fate, but in the case of Pietro Venanzi, the "Black Lady" hit with his scythe in a very fierce and in a way that really offends the great human and professional qualities of his victim.
I do not know your poor fellow-mate, Testing Experimenter Herbert Moran, but I am sure that he will be able to say excellent things for him too. However, not knowing anything other than your name and the curriculum reported by other newspapers, I ask those who want to pay homage to the memory of writing to our editorial staff.
Actually, I'm certainly not the best person to remember Com.te Venanzi, but having admired him professionally since the beginning of my professional flight and known personally only three weeks ago, I feel obliged to do so by recalling the first and the last picture I have of him.
The first: it was the month of May (or June?) Of the 1998 and in Pratica di Mare was held the "Day of the Wing".
It was a wealthy air show as we see them no more and in addition to various acrobatic patrols airplanes were hunted in abundance. Among these some "rare pearls", such as the SAAB "Viggen" and "Draken", the MiG29 and above all the prototype of the EFA, today more known as Eurofighter 2000 or "Typhoon". In particular, the latter, under the command of Maurizio Cheli, who a few months earlier had made headlines as an astronaut on the Space Shuttle, was the main attraction of the event, also because that airplane would soon retire the F104 that from 40 years was the backbone of our Air Force. An epochal passage represented by one of our compatriots who entered the legend, including the media.
All eyes and comments of the specialized press were therefore for Maurizio Cheli and the EFA, what could happen today seeing the prototype F35 piloted by Samatha Cristoforetti in front of 250.000 people.
But the Air Force, on that occasion also presented the old F-104, and Pietro Venanzi was in charge.
I still remember that presentation today, because despite the fact that that fascinating old supersonic was more "infamous" than "famous" and with flight characteristics not even remotely comparable to those of the EFA, a very considerable image emerged, and not only for the roar of his afterburner. I remember 3 consecutive tonneaux on the racetrack and at low altitude (but always in absolute safety for the public), in spite of a certain phenomenon called "inertial coupling" that on that hunt happened only for a single tonneau and that sadly had incidents of accidents the history of FXXUMX.
And I also remember that it was one of those presentations that I would very willingly see again: much more technical than scenic, without inaccuracies or uncertainties. A performance by a great professional ...
From that distant memory today what happened? Repetition of the above, in another form!
Other great Pilots, left armed force have alternated their activity of Testers with that of participants in the air show (from soloists or in teams), or have provided their expertise for journalistic activities.
Pietro Venanzi will certainly have contributed to the technical test of some aircraft for some important newspaper, but I do not remember a DVD of some magazine in which he was the protagonist, while I treasure the one of "VOLARE" where Cheli presents and explains the Eurofighter 2000.
Of course: not that those who participate in the air show or lend themselves to making a DVD are not as serious and professional, but the media interest was certainly different. Perhaps even the character of man will have been less whimsical, but certainly of the same level of competence, to the point of having allowed the development of one of the most daring aeronautical projects of all time and that never like in recent months is the horse of battle of our main national strategic company.
Other colleagues have not been able to embody with those simple and precise words, as well as in the elegant seriousness and modesty that expressed in the person, the image of the true professional who does not need the spotlight to be "a great".
Anyone who has seen the film projected in a certain Italian aeronautical museum, alongside the full-size model of the convertiplano, will share what I have just written two lines above.
In that same museum, a conference was held three weeks ago for the presentation of a documentary film about the life of a very famous tester. I went to that conference (doing 150 km and dedicating my rare and otherwise indispensable day of rest) only to meet Pietro Venanzi.
His presentation was not the only one of the day, and all the speakers were of enormous prestige, but he (who has had the task of playing the part of the henchman) was the only one who had the responsibility of experimentation for over 10 years. a convertiplane, and that type of aircraft, although it is really interesting, has long raised many doubts about security.
The presentation of the commander Venanzi was not structured less well than that made in flight with the F-104, 17 years before: an introduction on the activity of the experimenter, the description of how to access this profession and specific details of the current activities in which he and his company were engaged.
He began his speech as no one would ever start: with some images of crashed planes, emphasizing the fact that Experimental Testing Profession serves to prevent end users from perishing in that way, even at the cost that some tragic fatality takes place during the development of a new project.
He then anticipated any questions about safety due to the impossibility of "descent into autorotation" (typical helicopter escape maneuver) of the convertiplans already in service, the V-22 "Osprey" giving all the technical details of the case and demonstrating with a unpublished footage that with the AW-609 could land in "autorotazione".
For having developed that specific technical emergency descent on the Italian convertiplano, it had also been decorated internationally. But this detail, in his modesty reminded him of someone else, not him.
Yesterday, having gone to the scene of the incident, I spoke to many people who say they have witnessed the accident. All unanimously agree that those two Experimenters deserve another medal: that of heroes, for having sacrificed their own life by directing the aircraft to an uninhabited area.
These are my last 4 paragraphs, today, to explain why I wrote that the "Black Lady" this time was really ferocious, offensive and now I also add damn mocking.
But this is not the last memory I have of Com.te Venanzi.
At the evening buffet after the screening of that film, I approached him in a rare moment of calm and after a few pleasant technicians (in your position he could not tell me who knows what, but I wanted to make him understand that he did not have an incompetent emeritus) and I asked him if he would give me a copy of the DVD of the film I just saw and which I had just bought.
I saw him surprised, almost unprepared for the question and it struck me. He was given a marker by the director who had already autographed the disk and thought a moment before signing. Then, with my new big surprise (I never thought that someone like him could have a moment's hesitation for something like that, moreover!), He wrote only "Peter". Then, while he was already giving me the disk, a moment of hesitation, he took it back and, with a grin almost smiling and almost complacency, added a detail: the outline of an airplane that rises to the sky with a trail ...
Honors to Commander Pietro Venanzi and to your partner, Herbert Moran
Heroes and Experimenters of Flight
Dear Online Defense I would like to express my most heartfelt thanks for the wonderful article by Andrea Troncone on Pietro Venanzi and Herbert Moran. As your columnist I did not know Herbert personally, but I can certainly assert his professionalism and experience, but Pietro knows every single life experience, his unique professional skills, but above all his unparalleled humanity. The published article describes Peter for what he is: an out-of-class pilot, the best he has known, a simple and direct person, a humble man, a loving father. With Pietro we shared the passion of the flight since the early years, we have faced selections in the Academy, shared the rest room and study, the courses on the jets in America, and after separate experiences in their respective departments, even the experience at Experimental Flight Department. I know him from the 1982 and from that date we have become and remained sincere friends. Peter is a person as humble because those who know their value do not need to prove it. Surely in life Peter received less than he has given and deserved. In the Air Force he received a commendation having succeeded in landing with a helicopter in engine failure by flying below the so-called "dead man's curve". Few can survive. He has had previous serious incidents also by carrying out the work of experimenter at the Agusta managing to survive where many would not have seen a new dawn. Peter was "immortal" to us, certainly in flight. But "The Black Lady" this time was certainly mocking how correctly Troncone says. It was also unjust to say that Peter leaves a loving wife and four "jewels" of children. Perhaps as someone says it is really true that they always go the best. I thank you therefore for the article.
Com.te Marcello Vitale
ps I express my thanks also in the name of all our Academic Course, Centauro 4 °, which in these days is suffering from the serious loss.
