Alessandro Umberto Cagno, also known as Umberto Cagno and nicknamed Sandrin (May 2, 1883 – December 23, 1971), was an Italian racing driver, aviation pioneer, and powerboat racer. He began working at a Turin engineering factory at age 13 and later joined F.I.A.T. as employee number 3 under Giovanni Agnelli. At F.I.A.T., he became a test driver, Agnelli’s personal driver, and a driver for the company’s racing team. In 1906, he won the first Targa Florio race in Sicily after joining the Itala team.
Cagno co-founded "AVIS-Voisin" (Atelier Voisin Italie Septentrionale) to build Voisin aircraft under license. He designed and tested aircraft, created Italy’s first flying school in Pordenone, and became the first person to fly above Venice. After volunteering as a pilot during the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912) in Libya, he invented a device to help aim bombs.
Biography
Cagno was born in Turin to a working-class family. His father might have worked as a coal merchant. At the age of 13, he began working as an engineering apprentice at Storero, a local factory.
Motoring
Cagno was an apprentice at "Storero" in Turin, a company that built carriages, omnibuses, bicycles, and later Phoenix motorized tricycles under a license from the German Daimler company (Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft). His skills and interest in mechanics helped him become the riding mechanic for Luigi Storero, who drove a De Dion-Bouton tricycle and later a 1.75HP Daimler-engined Phoenix tricycle in early cyclecar competitions. They competed at the Piacenza Trotting track (Pista del Trotto) and in the Piacenza-Cremona-Borgo-Piacenza road race.
Giovanni Agnelli, who used a Storero racing tricycle, hired Cagno as the third worker at F.I.A.T. (later known as Fiat after 1906) and asked Luigi Storero to start a racing department. The team included Cagno, Vincenzo Lancia, and Felice Nazzaro, and they raced in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, and the USA.
Cagno worked as a F.I.A.T. test-driver and as Giovanni Agnelli’s personal driver. He was the first person to drive a truck from Turin to Moscow, opened the first Fiat branch in Turin, and was a champion powerboater.
From 1901 to 1905, he raced for F.I.A.T., mostly in Italian mountain races. His first event was in Saluzzo in 1901, where he finished third and fourth in two handicap events. His first international race was in 1902 at the age of 18, where he finished second at the Circuit of Ardennes in Belgium.
In addition to racing, he continued working as Luigi Storero’s riding mechanic. In 1902, he participated in the Sassi–Superga hillclimb, the Susa–Moncenisio hillclimb, and the Padua Sprint race. In 1903, he was the riding-mechanic for Vincenzo Lancia in the Race of Death from Paris to Madrid, but they retired their F.I.A.T. 24 hp before the race was stopped in Bordeaux.
His first victory came in July 1904 when he drove the 100 hp F.I.A.T. at the Susa-Moncenisio hillclimb (or he finished second, 8 seconds behind Felice Nazzarro in another F.I.A.T.). He finished third at the Gordon Bennett Cup at Puy de Dôme in 1905 and fourth at the Mont Ventoux hillclimb. Felice Nazzaro accompanied him at these events, marking Fiat’s first international success. Later in 1905, he finished third at the Circuit of Milano, second at the Susa-Moncenisio hillclimb, and first at the Mont Ventoux hillclimb in France.
In 1906, he switched from Fiat to Itala (Fab Auto Itala SA), a Turin-based manufacturer. With Itala, he won the inaugural Targa Florio in 1906 and the Coppa della Velocita in 1907. Driving the 120 hp Itala, he completed three laps of the Targa Florio’s Grande Circuit, covering 446 kilometers (277 miles) in 9 hours 32 minutes 22 seconds, averaging 46.8 km/h.
Cagno drove the Itala to fifth place at the 1907 Kaiser Preis, completing two laps in 3 hours 7 minutes 26 seconds. His entry number was 35A, meaning he was the "A" driver in Team 35. At the 1907 Coppa della Velocita, he completed 486 kilometers (302 miles) in 4 hours 37 minutes 26.6 seconds, averaging 65.2 mph (104.8 km/h). Other Itala team members finished eighth and tenth. The car later raced in the US, lapped Brooklands at over 100 mph, and is now in the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, England. In the Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, he finished seventh with the Itala, one lap behind Louis Wagner in the winning Darracq.
In 1908, he drove the new 12-cylinder Itala, finishing 11th at the French Grand Prix and third at the Coppa Florio in Bologna. The team then entered the 1908 American Grand Prize at Savannah, but he retired after a spring broke on lap 12.
By around 1910, Cagno had lost interest in motor racing, focusing instead on aviation. However, in 1912, he returned to Fiat as both "Chief Tester of racing cars" and "General motor vehicle Tester."
He made an unsuccessful return to racing at the 1914 French Grand Prix, completing 10 laps before his Fiat retired due to a damaged valve.
During World War I, he managed the General Testing Office for the Italian and French armies.
Cagno returned to racing in the 1920s, winning the 1923 Italian Grand Prix for voiturettes and the Leningrad-Moscow-Tbilisi event in a Fiat.
Aviation
By 1909, Cagno no longer focused on racing. Instead, he became interested in aviation. He earned his pilot’s license and later taught others how to fly at Cameri, a place about 90 kilometers northeast of Turin.
In October 1909, Cagno worked with two engineers, Clovis Thouvenot and Gino Galli, at Cameri to start a company called "AVIS-Voisin" (Atelier Voisin Italie Septentrionale). This company built aircraft based on designs from the Voisin company. Cagno used these planes to compete in the Brescia-Montichiari event.
He designed and tested aircraft. In 1910, he also started Italy’s first flying school in Pordenone.
On February 19, 1911, in Venice, Cagno flew his 50 horsepower Farman III aircraft six times from the beach at Lido di Venezia, even though there was fog. The plane had been brought to Venice in pieces from Pordenone and put together on the skating rink of the Excelsior Hotel. On March 3, he made the first flight over Venice. He continued flying daily until March 6, the last day of Carnival. Each day, a passenger was chosen through a public lottery. The winner sold their ticket to a lawyer named Casellati.
In 1911, Cagno volunteered for the Italo-Turkish War in Libya. He built the first Italian bomber. He also added a grenade launcher or a simple aiming device made of a tube or angled surface.
Death and commemoration
Cagno stopped racing cars in 1923 but kept living in his family home in Turin until he passed away in 1971. When he died, he was the last person who had taken part in the first international Grand Prix motor race ever held.
In 1961, he gave an interview that is now kept at the Museo Nazionale dell'Automobile (Museo Nazionale dell'automobile Biscaretti). In this interview, he talks about his time in racing.