History

On 22nd December 1969, Gian Carlo and Felice Tonini launched their new business, GT Eliche (GT Propellers), and have been manufacturing ever since – 57 years of uninterrupted production.

The brothers, early commissions were the repair and manufacture of replacement propellers for the first German powered gliders and American experimental category aircraft. Manufacturing was all meticulously hand-made. During this period, Gian Carlo and his brother, Felice, designed and built their very own glider, which they flew successfully.

Their father, Domenico Tonini, born in 1903, was by trade, a professional violin maker. He had his shop situated in the Gothic line region. During WWII, due to this strategic position, Domenico was approached originally by the German and later the American forces, to apply his woodworking skills to repair damaged propellers, which equipped the Fi 156 Storch, J-3 Cubs, L-4 and the Auster.

With the masterful dexterity of producing musical instruments and working with propellers, it was natural that the father passed on his knowledge and skills to his sons. The brothers Tonini furthered their knowledge by learning propeller design from Novello Gaspari of Rimini, who himself had vast working experience in both naval and aviation engineering.

In 1971, Domenico and his sons, Gian Carlo and Felice even joined forces and went into serial production at their original workshop in Rimini. (see image)

Since then, Gian Carlo has dedicated 12 hours a day, 6 days a week continuously producing propellers.

At present, Gian Carlo and his two sons, Alessandro and Paolo, have progressed to new levels by constant progress in design and production of GT Propellers.

Lately, GT have introduced new composite materials and the client base has been enlarged to co-operation with civil aviation and military entities, GA operators, maintenance shops, dealers, aircraft manufacturers, war-bird restorers, wind tunnel operators,VTOL and UAV producers and specific custom propeller requirements.