Quick Facts
Biography
Renato "Sonny" Levi (9 September 1926 – 12 November 2016) was an Indian boat designer known for creating powerboats for the Aga Khan, the Shah of Iran, and Richard Branson.
Early life
Renato Levi was born in Karachi on 9 September 1926 into a family that had fled fascism in Italy, but he was educated in France and Darjeeling.
Career
Levi learned about boat design in his uncle's boat-design business Afco in Bombay. He moved to England in 1944 and became a pilot in Spitfires with the Royal Air Force. After demobilisation he founded his own boatyard in Anzio in 1960. he invented a surface propulsion system which increased speed and reduced drag and was installed on Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Challenger II. In 1986 he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry.
Death
Levi died on 12 November 2016.