Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio (born in
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1890 and died in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1966),
marquisMarquis is a French title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:* André Marquis, Vichy French admiral responsible for the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in 1942...
of Pateras-Pescara, was an
ArgentineArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
lawyer and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
specializing in
seaplaneA seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories: floatplanes and flying boats...
s and
helicopterA helicopter is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft because the helicopter achieves lift with the...
s, as well as motors, compressors, and the Pescara
free-piston engineThe free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device and a load device The free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless'...
.
The beginning of the 20th century, his family returned from Buenos Aires to Europe. He worked with
Gustave EiffelAlexandre Gustave Eiffel , was a French structural engineer and entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
on
wind tunnelA wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
research to test a model torpedo-launching seaplane named the
Pateras Pescara.
In 1912, the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
Ministry of the Navy tested the first aquatic torpedo launcher, based on the Pescara's model.
Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio (born in
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital, and largest city, of Argentina, currently the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the eastern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1890 and died in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1966),
marquisMarquis is a French title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:* André Marquis, Vichy French admiral responsible for the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in 1942...
of Pateras-Pescara, was an
ArgentineArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
lawyer and
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
specializing in
seaplaneA seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories: floatplanes and flying boats...
s and
helicopterA helicopter is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft because the helicopter achieves lift with the...
s, as well as motors, compressors, and the Pescara
free-piston engineThe free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device and a load device The free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless'...
.
Biography
The beginning of the 20th century, his family returned from Buenos Aires to Europe. He worked with
Gustave EiffelAlexandre Gustave Eiffel , was a French structural engineer and entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
on
wind tunnelA wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research. It is used to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
research to test a model torpedo-launching seaplane named the
Pateras Pescara.
In 1912, the
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
Ministry of the Navy tested the first aquatic torpedo launcher, based on the Pescara's model. Pescara met Alberto Santos Dumont in Paris at the beginning of the First World War.
In 1917, he applied in Spain for
patentA patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention....
number 63,659, April 7, 1917, which would be followed by 98 other patents until 1929.
In 1919, Pescara built several true coaxial helicopters, primarily described in his tenth French patent, number 533,820, submitted in Spain on February 21, 1920. Entitled "Rational helicopter," this patent indeed describes a pure helicopter. From 1919 to 1923, he submitted forty-some patents across several countries. Equipped with this type of coaxial double rotor apparatus, on April 18, 1924 he was able to achieve a new world record of flight with 736
meterThe metre or meter is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units . Historically, the metre was defined by the French Academy of Sciences as the length between two marks on a platinum-iridium bar, which was designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator...
s covered in 4 minutes 11 seconds (approximately 13 km/h) at a height of 1.8 m.
In 1929, along with his brother Henri, the Italian
engineerEngineers are concerned with developing economical and safe solutions to practical problems, by applying mathematics and scientific knowledge while considering technical constraints. The term is derived from the Latin root "ingenium," meaning "cleverness"...
Moglia, and the Spanish government, he founded
La Fabrica Nacional de Automobiles ("National Automobile Factory") with an investment of 70 million
pesetaPeseta may refer to:*The Spanish peseta, the former currency of Spain*The Catalan peseta, the former currency of Catalonia*Ex gang members in Prisons in Honduras...
s. The
Nacional Pescara was exhibited in 1931, at the great palace, on the neighboring stand to the salon of Paris (???). In 1931 this eight-cylinder car won the European Grand Prix for coastal racing. The
Spanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil War was a major conflict that devastated Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. It began after an attempted coup d'état by a group of Spanish Army generals against the government of the Second Spanish Republic, then under the leadership of president Manuel Azaña...
forced Pescara to return to France.
On February 28, 1933, the
Pescara Auto-compressor Company was unveiled in
LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
. Public records give its address as 33 Boulevard Royal. It remained in business for 30 years, supported by six French patents. One of its shareholders was the
Pescara & Raymond Corporation based in
Dover, DelawareThe city of Dover is the capital and second largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, and the principal city of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Kent County. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware...
, USA.
L´un de ses actionnaires est la société
Pescara & Raymond Corporation dont le siége est Dover, dans l'État du Delaware aux États-Unis. Pescara auto-compressors fall into two basic types: symmetrical and asymmetrical.
During the Second World War, Pescara worked on electrical power in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
.
Free-piston engineThe free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless' internal combustion engine, in which the piston motion is not controlled by a crankshaft but determined by the interaction of forces from the combustion chamber gases, a rebound device and a load device The free-piston engine is a linear, 'crankless'...
s received new attention when they were mass-produced by SIGMA which developed the GS34, a 1200-
horsepowerHorsepower is the name of several non-SI units of power. It was originally defined to allow the output of steam engines to be measured and compared with the power output of draft horses. The horsepower was widely adopted to measure the output of piston engines, turbines, electric motors and other...
generator. Pescara rejoined his sons in Paris in 1963 where he served as an expert for S.N Marep which was testing its 2000-horsepower
ELPH 40.
On December 29, 1965, he empowered his youngest son Christian de Pescara to exercise "all means to conduct business on free-piston machines in order to develop them and their diverse applications in industry."
Raúl Pateras-Pescara subsequently proposed the production of more powerful machines (new tandem generators based on the existing classical generators EPLH 40 and GS34). The formation of a company to apply these processes was underway when Pescara died.
See also
- de Pescara, Christian. Aérofrance, pages 28-31. Issue 108. Dépôt légal: n° CPPAP 61682.
- de Pescara, Christian. Association des Amis du Musée de l'air. Pégase, pages 12-21 with 26 photos. ISBN - 0399-9939.
External links
Biographical site 2001 engineering and scientific conference on a century of inventions by the Pescaras