Giuseppe Belluzzo, the Italian engineer
An Italian turbine engineer claims that “flying saucers” were Italian blueprints, later passed to Germans.
 Here it is the original article published on the Italian daily “Il Giornale d’Italia” on March 24-25, 1950. Giuseppe Belluzzo was a noted turbine expert (born in Verona, on November 25, 1876), whose nearly 50 books were highly considered. During the Fascist government he was elected at the Parliament and was even appointed Minister of the National Economy between 1925 and 1928. He built the very first Italian steam turbines, later enhancing them for installation on cruisers and battleships. He died in Rome on May 21st, 1952.His claims to the press arrived just during the very first Italian (and European) UFO wave, in the spring of 1950. The day after several newspapers published the Belluzzo’s claims, often on their first page. “Il Corriere della Sera”, “La Nazione”, “Il Messaggero”, “La Stampa” and “La Gazzetta del Popolo” were just some of them. |
 A detailed sketch of the Belluzzo’s disc was published on the newspaper “IlMattino dell’Italia Centrale” on March 27, 1950. Another daily, “Il Corriere d’Informazione” dated March 29-30 published a summary of such claims, plus a statement by general Ranza, of the Italian Air Force, who denied the Belluzzo story.A news dispatch was wired by Associated Press on March 24: this means that the Belluzzo claims could have been published also on some European newspapers just a few days before the Schriever claims.The original article told that some circular aircraft had been studied and designed since 1942 in Italy and Germany. By 1950 it should has been developed far enough to be able to deliver atom bombs. It was ten meter across, unmanned and made by very light metals. |
 Another sketch of Belluzzo’s idea of its circular turbo-powered aircraft. The “pipes” installed on the edge of the disc had a variable diameter. The air resulted accelerated when flowing through them. In the largest section of each pipe some oil was sprayed and then ignited. The temperature raised quickly and at the end of the pipe the air reached a speed around 700 meters/sec., able to supply a 400 meters/sec. rotation speed to the whole circular aircraft. When the oil was over, the craft fell quickly down to the ground with its explosive payload. Antoher version reported the unmanned craft as a “flak weapon”. Because of the Associated Press dispatch released the same day of Giuseppe Belluzzo article, it is possible his claims were published in some European newspapers, including German ones. In such a case there could be room for additional investigation about the possible influence of the Belluzzo claims on the Schriever interview, published just a few days later. The near synchronicity of both stories look quite odd, but possible. Claims of wonder German super-weapons were popular in the years following the end of WWII. More, one of the favorite hypothesis to explain the then new “flying saucer” enigma was just the “secret weapon” one, including that saying Russian had captured secret German technology and later flown it successfully. |
 Just a few days after Belluzzo’s claims, an obscure Italian daily featured a letter from a reader, a Mr. Lino Saglioni.He claimed the Belluzzo story was correct and he was one of the British commands trained to be sent to a remote site in North-East Norway, where Germans were developing the original Italian idea. The guy didn’t join the commando force, which was completely destroyed during its mission. Renato Vesco links such a story with the development of his never-confirmed “Feuerball” and “Kugelblitz” circular aircrafts. Mr. Saglioni (whose original letter was sent to the daily “Il Giornale dell’Emilia”) was never investigated, so serious doubts about the historical reality of his claims still remain.Renato Vesco himself had a couple of letters exchanged with such a gentleman, but nothing special came out. The story was resumed one year later on the pages of the aeronautical magazine “ALI” (1951) by Alberto Fenoglio, a rocket amateur who wrote a book (1950) and several articles about German Secret Weapons of WWII in the late ’50s on the pages of an Italian rocket and space magazine “Oltre il Cielo”. Some of Fenoglio’s claims appeared unsubstantiated, others highly suspicious (as well as some fakes about ancient UFO sightings and other incidents in Russia) and mostly taken by earlier books and newsclippings. The whole story, thanks to Fenoglio, evolved even more. |