Stelio Frati and his F-22

Carl Miller

Thursday, September 09, 2010 at 06:59 PM ET

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Stelio Frati's F-22 Pinguino Jim Winn

Key Takeaways:

The author recounts a failed attempt in 1998 to bring Stelio Frati's elegant F-22 Pinguino aircraft, from the struggling Italian manufacturer General Avia, to the American market.
Frati's design philosophy prioritized aesthetics and flight experience, resulting in the F-22 being a beautifully crafted, docile, and aerobatic aircraft built to high quality standards.
Despite its exceptional qualities and a favorable U.S. certification path, the commercial venture stalled due to the manufacturer's financial issues and a substantial licensing fee, preventing the F-22 from finding market success at the time.

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I may have been the last person to consider bringing the late Stelio Frati’s F-22 Pinguino to America. Mooney apparently looked at the program, and Roy LoPresti, who also sought to produce the SwiftFury, was interested. By the time I arrived at the General Avia factory in Perugia, Italy, on a frigid January day in 1998, the company was on life support, and shortly thereafter was bankrupt.

I never met Frati, who was a designer, not a manufacturing engineer or marketer. So I know him only through his aircraft, some of which enjoyed commercial success, notably the agile and lovely Siai Marchetti SF.260. But I surmise that Frati’s motives had more to do with the aesthetic and experiential aspects of flight than the commercial ones.