The Ambrosini S.1001 ''Grifo'' ("Griffin") was an Italian light airplane that appeared shortly after the end of World War II. The first plane built by SAI Ambrosini postwar, the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

flew in 1947 and was derived from the pre-war SAI.2S. It was a four-seat monoplane with spatted fixed

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

. A small series was produced for the Italian aeroclubs with an

Alfa Romeo 110 The Alfa Romeo 110 was an Italian four cylinder air-cooled inverted inline engine for aircraft use, mainly for trainers and light aircraft. The Alfa Romeo 110 was based on the de Havilland Gipsy Major, with approximately 500 units produced. Deriv ...

-ter engine of 97 kW (130 hp). Three examples were even bought by the Italian

Aeronautica Militare , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

(AMI), which used them between 1948 and 1950.

Distance record

From 28–29 April

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

Leonardo Bonzi Leonardo Bonzi (22 December 1902 – 30 December 1977) was an Italian bobsledder. He competed in the four-man event at the 1924 Winter Olympics The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games (french: Iers Jeux ...

and Maner Lualdi established a distance record for aircraft in this class, flying from Campoformido, Italy to

Massawa Massawa ( ; ti, ምጽዋዕ, məṣṣəwaʿ; gez, ምጽዋ; ar, مصوع; it, Massaua; pt, Maçuá) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak ...

, Eritrea - without stopover. On January 10,

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

, on board the same aircraft, now christened ''Angelo dei Bimbi'', they headed for Dakar in an attempt to reach South America. After having overcome the opposition of the

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authorities, they took off from Yoff on January 29, 1949, dispensing with radio and parachutes to be able to load 800 litres (176 imp gal, 211 us gal) of fuel. Seventeen hours later, they were in Parnaiba, Brazil. By the end of a triumphal tour through Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, they had collected 500 million lire from the Italian community living in these countries to contribute to the economic restarting of Italy. Their plane ''I-ASSI'' is preserved today at the Museum Romeo Esparto of Milan-Arese.

Variants

A two-seater version powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major of 120 kW (160 hp) was offered to the AMI as a trainer. The AMI were not interested, but a few aircraft were built as the S.1002 Trasimeno for aeroclubs.

Operators

; * Italian Air Force operated three aircraft until the 1950s

Specifications (S.1001)

References

* * {{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation SAI Ambrosini aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft 1940s Italian civil utility aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1947