Giuseppe Belluzzo (1876-1952) — turbine engineer, Mussolini's economy minister
playerDefense & Military-Industrial
Mussolini's own economy minister told a magazine he had drawn the plans for a flying disc. That is why the story travelled.
Who they are
Giuseppe Belluzzo (Verona 1876 - Rome 1952), an Italian turbine engineer who was Minister of the National Economy under Mussolini from 1925 to 1928, quoted in Der Spiegel in March 1950[1][2].
What they do
In the engine he is the second claimant in the same article, and the one whose real rank gives the story its weight.
How it works
He says he designed the plans himself, describes a ten-metre spinning light-metal disc burning compressed air and naphtha like a jet, and says Hitler and Mussolini had trials of missile-carrying discs run in 1942. The plans, he says, were lost when Mussolini fled to northern Italy. He then adds the part that usually gets dropped: the discs are probably being flown now by some great power, for study[1].
Why it matters
It matters because his ministerial post was real, which is exactly what lets an unverifiable claim carry weight for seventy years. The engine records that the claim was made, by him, on that date. It does not record that the plans existed. One correction carried in the record itself: his birth and death years were first published here with only the magazine article attached as their source, and the magazine does not give them. They now carry the Italian biographical dictionary that does[2].
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #195] **In plain terms:** the other man interviewed in the same March 1950 article. Unlike Schriever he was a genuinely senior figure, which is what gives his claim its weight in the later literature.
Der Spiegel 13/1950 describes him, verbatim, as 'der italienische Wissenschaftler Prof. Giuseppe Belluzzo, Turbinen-Ingenieur, Fachmann für Raketen- und Geschützbau und Wirtschaftsminister unter Mussolini' — turbine engineer, specialist in rocket and gun construction, and Minister of the Economy under Mussolini. That ministerial post is real and is the reason the claim travels.
HIS CLAIM, verbatim: '»Ich selbst habe die Pläne entworfen«... »Der Durchmesser der rotierenden Leichtmetallscheibe betrug zehn Meter. Als Treibstoff wurde eine Mischung von komprimierter Luft und Naphta verwendet, wie bei den Düsenflugzeugen.«' He states Hitler and Mussolini had trials of missile-carrying discs run in 1942, and that '»Leider sind die Pläne auf der Flucht Mussolinis nach Norditalien verlorengegangen.«' — the plans were lost during Mussolini's flight to northern Italy.
THE SECOND HALF OF THE CLAIM, which the later literature generally drops: he adds that the discs are at present probably being flown 'von irgendeiner Großmacht zu Studienzwecken' — by some great power for study purposes. The claim is therefore not only 'we built it' but 'someone else has it now', made in March 1950. Nothing here establishes that any such plans existed; what is established is that the assertion was made, by that man, on that date, in that publication.
[Report #195, same-day correction] PROVENANCE OF THE DATES IN THIS RECORD'S LABEL. The 1876-1952 dates were shipped in the label with only the Spiegel article attached as a source. The Spiegel article does not give them. That is the failure mode this report names at borrowed_credential_sourcing — a real source carrying a claim it does not support — committed in the same ripple that names it. The dates are now sourced: Treccani's Enciclopedia on line, verbatim, 'Ingegnere italiano (Verona 1876 - Roma 1952)', with a full entry by Enzo Pozzato and Piero Melograni in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 8 (1966), which gives his birth at Verona on 25 November 1876 to Luigi and Adelaide Francescatti. Treccani also records what Spiegel's one-line description compresses: professor at the Milan Polytechnic from 1911, moving to the Rome engineering school in 1929; deputy; Minister of National Economy 1925-28 and of Public Education 1928-29; minister of state from 1929 and senator from 1934; and that Italy's first steam turbine was built by him.
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