MCX-01 REDBIRD

Redbird was the first aircraft I designed as a complete concept, inside and out.
A project envisioned and commissioned by Maurizio Cheli, a long-time friend whose background needs no introduction.

I still remember the early days spent in his workshop, cutting polystyrene sections to understand how the aircraft could be shaped around its occupants.

Pencil sketches, CAD models, cutters, and hand saws: ideas tested physically as much as visually. It was a true concept design experience, where form was explored through direct experimentation.

For the first time, I imagined an interior that was not simply seats bolted to a floor, but a single composite structure.

Seating, central tunnel, instrument panel, and side armrests were integrated into one continuous form: a cockpit conceived as a living volume rather than an assembly of separate parts.

This project marked a first also in terms of process.
Ideas were shaped, tested, corrected, and tested again.

The internal cockpit tub was structurally integrated with the fuselage, a concept borrowed from high-performance automotive design, where structure and interior become a single entity.

These principles later became a foundation for many subsequent projects, delivering measurable improvements in ergonomics, weight reduction, and overall visual coherence.

Watching the Redbird lift off the ground was a unique moment.
For the first time, I saw an aircraft I had fully conceived leave the earth, turning design into flight.