1908 - SOCIETA' ITALIANA PER L'ESPERIMENTO DELL'ORTOELICOTTERO FUSERI - FOSSANO

Italian ornithopter, designed by Dr. Fuseri, a pharmacist living in the small town of Fossano in the province of Piemonte, and built by Franz Miller, one of Italy’s first aeronautical engineers, as a contractor. In 1908 the firm “Società anonima italiana per l’esperimento dell’ortoelicottero Fuseri” was formed in Fossano and construction of the aircraft was initiated in 1909 by the factory of Miller in Torino where it was never flown and unlikely to have ever been tried. This sort of machine (VTOL) is along the lines of the somewhat later machines of deCazes where it is named a Hélicoplane, just as the Fuseri Ortoelicottero, a mix of helicopter (vertical take-off and landing) and aeroplane.