Surviving designs of the "Aereo Veliero" (aerial sailing ship) by Vittorio Sarti, a Florentine cobbler settled in Bologna, were remark-able for the period.

The aircraft possessed two contra-rotating co-axial rotors, each formed, as it were, of three sails on to which were forced jets of steam issuing from a large number of nozzles cut into the mast.

P.Lambermont "Helicopters and Autogyros of the World", 1958