MV Agusta (, full name: MV AGUSTA Motor S.p.A., original name: Meccanica Verghera Agusta or MV) is a high end motorcycle manufacturer founded by Count Domenico Agusta on 19 January 1945 as one of the branches of the Agusta aircraft company near Milan in Cascina Costa, Italy. The abbreviation MV stands for Meccanica (mechanics) Verghera, the hamlet where the first MVs were made. The modern headquarters and main production facilities are located in Varese, Italy on the shore of Lake Varese. History 1943–1945: From idea to mass production It all began in the early years of the 20th century, when Count Giovanni Agusta left Sicily for northern Italy, where he built his first aircraft, the AG.1, four years after the Wright brothers had made history in the US. The First World War, which demonstrated the prospects of aviation, prompted the count to act decisively – and in 1923, in the town of Samarate, he founded the Costruzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta S.A. (usually shortened to Agusta) aircraft factory. However, in 1927, at the age of 48, he died and left his life's work to his wife Giuseppina and sons, Domenico, Vincenzo, Mario and Corrado. Aircraft orders were plentiful, and business generally went well until World War II intervened. In 1945, following the provisions of the peace treaty after the war, which were later reiterated in the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, the production of aircraft was forbidden to Italy, and the Agusta family had to think quick to save their high-tech business and keep their employees in work. In the midst of World War II Count Domenico Agusta came to the idea that the best way to diversify the business and turn it into a peaceful channel would be to create a motorcycle production. Moreover, he understood that a country gutted by war would need a simple, cheap and efficient machine. Therefore, by August 1943, the engine was ready: a 98 cc single-cylinder two-stroke with two-stage gear box. And even if the total shortage of spare parts had to resort to the services of the black market, the process was already launched – and on January 19, 1945, in the town of Cascina Costa (near the Malpensa airport near Milan), a private company Meccanica Verghera S.r.l. was registered, and in the fall of the same year the first motorcycle was presented. At a dealership on Via Piatti in Milan in late October