Flight pioneers

Ugo Zannier: the first flyer from Valinis

Ugo Zannier was born in Clauzetto in 1913 and was an aircraft enthusiast from an early age. In 1924, at the age of 11, he entered boarding school in Venice as a cabinetmaker. In Venice he saw the first seaplanes up close.
In 1928, at the age of 15, he finished school and was hired in Milan as a draftsman in Breda’s aeronautical technical department.
In 1931 he was given the opportunity to attend a gliding course at the School of Pavullo nel Frignano (MO), where he obtained his first glider pilot’s licence at the age of 18.
He wanted to enrol in the Royal Air Force but the medical commission excluded him due to an alleged heart murmur.
The only way to prove otherwise was to build an aircraft.
And he did.
In 1932, at the age of 19, he left his job at Breda and returned to Clauzetto to build his aircraft.
The municipal Administration granted him the use of a classroom in the Drawing School large enough to build the parts of the plane and relatives and friends helped in this undertaking. For the construction he took references from the book “Il volo a vela” (Gliding) by Cav. Bonomi of Cantù and from the German glider Zoegling. During this period, he met two people in Meduno who helped him a great deal in his venture: engineer Benvenuto Brovedani, of Clauzetto origin like Ugo, and pilot officer Raffaello Scarton, a gliding instructor at Udine airport. Enginieer Brovedani gave him moral, technical and financial support while Scarton helped him with teaching, advice and practical flying lessons.