Domenico Salza was an Italian firearms designer.
History[]
Domenico Salza was born in Milan in 1925.[1] He studied at the Politecnico di Milano, graduating in 1949. In 1951 he joined Beretta, working under chief designer Tullio Marengoni. When Marengoni retired in 1956, Salza was appointed as Beretta's new chief designer. Under Salza's tenure, Beretta developed a series of prototype submachine guns based on the Armaguerra OG-44, in an attempt to replace the long-serving Beretta Model 38. This project gradually evolved into the Beretta PM12, which was a very successful product and was widely exported. Salza also designed modifications for the M1 Garand rifle which culminated in the development of the Beretta BM59 assault rifle, which was adopted as Italy's standard service rifle in 1959.
In 1962, Salza left Beretta. In 1964 he was appointed president of the Banco Nazionale di Prova per le Armi Portatili (lit. "National Shooting Range for Portable Weapons") in Gardone Val Trompia.[2] He also headed the Italian delegation at the C.I.P.. In 1995, he was awarded the title of Grande Ufficiale by Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
Works[]
Salza is known to have designed the following arms:
- Beretta Model 5 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 6 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 7 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 8 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 9 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 10 - submachine gun
- Beretta Model 11 - submachine gun
- Beretta PM12 - submachine gun
- Beretta BM59 - assault rifle