Fred Ascani
United States general
Fred J. Ascani (born Alfredo John Ascani; May 29, 1917 – March 28, 2010) was an American major general and test pilot of the United States Air Force. He was one of the "Men of Mach 1" and was considered the father of systems engineering at Wright Field.
Early years
Ascani was born on May 29, 1917, in Beloit, Wisconsin, to Italian immigrants just 14 years after the Wright brothers achieved powered flight. His interest in aviation was sparked in 1927 when he watched Charles Lindbergh fly overhead in the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic flight to Paris. His family moved to Rockford, Illinois, several miles downriver from Beloit, where Ascani attended Rockford High School and enjoyed a hobby building model airplanes. He graduated as high school valedictorian in 1935 and attended Beloit College for two years. In 1937, Ascani was accepted at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated 34th out of a class of 425 and in 1941 was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers. Engineering took a back seat to aviation when Ascani was sent to Hicks Field for initial flight training and Foster Army Air Field for advanced flight training.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Fred Ascani” as united States general. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as united States general. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5494483. VIAF identifies the subject as 26816589. The Library of Congress control number is n2015043622. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 2010, 1927 and 1935.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Fred Ascani”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Fred Ascani primary sources, Fred Ascani archive and Fred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fred Ascani”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Fred Ascani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.