A Tricolour Record: Paolo Filippini Challenges the Sky in Ferrara

Saturday 12 April will be a date destined to go down in the history of parachuting. At the Aeroclub of Ferrara, also home to the Ferrara Parachute School, a spectacular event will be staged: the launch of the largest flag ever flown by a parachutist, a good 3300 square metres of tricolour Italian.

Attempting the feat will be Paolo Filippini, Lieutenant Colonel of the Italian Army on leavealready effective at Parachute Training Centrea multiple world skydiving champion, who will be joined by the team from the local skydiving school for technical and logistical support. The main launch will be preceded by a symbolic descent with a 1600 m2 flag, already used in the past by Filippini, to test the weather conditions and ideally pass the baton to the new, mammoth version.

The flag, made of an ultra-lightweight technical fabric, will be attached to a specially designed tandem parachute to support about 130 kgthe tricolour alone. During the flight, two parachutists from the school will take video footage to document every stage of the event: from take-off to deployment in the air, to the descent to the ground.

Paolo Filippini, class of 1961, originally from the province of Sienahas been living for four years in Chain of Quarratain the province of Pistoia, thanks to the love that led him to move there. He is a true legend of international skydiving. On his palmarès:

• 11 times Italian Individual Champion
• 7 World Team Champion titles
• 2 individual World Champion titles
• 2 individual world records
• 4 CONI Gold Medals for Athletic Valour
• 2 Gold Crosses of Merit of the Army
• 1 Gold Star for Sporting Merit of the International Military Sports Council

An extraordinary career that contributed to writing indelible pages of military and national sport.

On 12 April, in Ferrara, the whole of Italy will be able to admire his next feat: an immense tricolour, suspended between heaven and earth, which will become a symbol of courage, pride and passion.