D'Ascanio had an early passion for flight and design: by the age of fifteen, after studying flying techniques and the ratio between weight and wingspan of some birds, he built an experimental glider which he would launch from the hills near his home town.

[2] On his return to Italy after a year in 1919, D'Ascanio again settled in Popoli, focused on the control mechanisms for helicopters, through which he derived a number of patents.

Approached by pre-war tubing manufacturer Ferdinando Innocenti, who saw the future of cheap private transport and decided to produce a motor scooter—competing on cost and weather protection against the ubiquitous motorcycle.

The main stimulus for the design style of the proposed Lambretta dated back to Pre-WWII Cushman scooters made in Nebraska, USA.

These olive green scooters were in Italy in large numbers, ordered originally by the US Government as field transport for the Paratroops and Marines.

The US military had used them to get around Nazi defence tactics, destroying roads and bridges during the Battle of Monte Cassino and in the Dolomites and the Austrian border areas.

The pass-through leg area design was geared towards all user groups, including women, whose skirts made riding a motorcycle a challenge.

[1] Author of numerous scientific publications, published between 1954 and 1980, he was professor of design of machines and projects at the University of Pisa between 1937 (when he was an employee of Piaggio) and 1961.

[1] Always disappointed by the fact that, publicly, he was recognised more for his association with the Vespa motor scooter than for his inventions and patents in the world of aviation, D'Ascanio died in Pisa on 6 August 1981.