Sonny Levi

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.

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.

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.

Levi died on 12 November 2016.

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