Vespa Scooters
When WWII ended in 1945 the Axis powers were barred from producing aeroplanes for several years. Piaggio was left with a bombed out fighter jet factory that wasn’t allowed to produce planes, so a change was needed. In a bold move, Piaggio abandoned the aircraft industry and started making scooters. The first Vespas started rolling out of the factory in the spring of 1946. By 1950 sales of Vespa were exceeding 50,000 units annually.
The Vespa was actually modeled after a pre-World War II scooter from Nebraska called the Cushman Scooter. Piaggio didn’t set out to simply make a scooter though, they were striving to make a viable mode of transportation for the masses. Utilizing their experience in the aircraft industry a number of unique features were designed into Vespa’s making them more driver friendly and cheaper to produce. Features like shielding the engine and other mechanical parts, a twist grip control for changing gears and a small “glovebox”.
Today the iconic Vespa design is known around the world. The Vespa has a cult-like following with Vespa clubs throughout Europe and North America. Since it’s creation in 1946 there have been 138 different version of the Vespa with five different series currently being manufactured today. In 2011 there were just over 20,000 Vespas sold in the USA.