One of the great heroes in the European aerobatic scene is Luciano Compostella from Italy. For many decades he has dominated the Italian stunt circles. He has also won the European Championships and placed high in several World Championships. Luciano is well known for his “Tango” design which he has developed over many years and several versions. Nevertheless Luciano has drawn many other designs which he has been quite successful with. By the way, he has been one of the first flyers who have successfully entered the four stroke era long before this technology became high fashion.

Among his finer escapades there was also a biplane. You know, I’m a fan of biplanes, and I’m always excited when I happen to see one doing a stunt pattern - and a good one, at that !! In 1995 I was a competitor at the Swiss International contest at Breitenbach. This is a premium contest on the European scene which draws many high caliber flyers from all over Europe. For the last round Luciano unpacked a biplane from his car and made his last flight. It was the highest score of the contest and he won it.

Luciano was kind enough to hand me a simple sketch of his biplane, drawn on what we call “Millimeter paper” ( it has a Millimeter grid, thus dimensions can easily be taken from the drawing, whatever scale is used. See the picture ). Later I got an exact drawing of the “Falco” biplane. I have included this drawing here, but the numbers are not clearly readable. With the span number given it should be possible to calculate all other dimensions easily.

Falco was designed in 1992. The name was borrowed from an Italian FIAT fighter aircraft from World War 1 (which it slightly resembles ). Span is 120 Centimeter ( about 48 inch ). The model was powered by an OS 48 Surpass four stroke engine.

The picture at left shows a version built recently by Olimpio Torchio, Cirie, Italy. Whatever the design criteria for this biplane may have been - the success speaks for itself. A click on the “falcon-button” below will open a PDF drawing which can give even more detailed information.