Looks like a wasp! Vespa

Enrico Piaggio, Italian industrialist,  filed a patent for the Vespa scooter design in April 1946. The application documents referred to a "model of a practical nature" for a "motorcycle with rationally placed parts and elements with a frame combining with mudguards and engine-cowling covering all working parts", of which "the whole constitutes a rational, comfortable motorcycle offering protection from mud and dust without jeopardizing requirements of appearance and elegance". The patent was approved the following December.
It was also one of the first vehicles to use monocoque construction (where the body is an integral part of the chassis). Upon seeing the MP6 for the first time, Enrico Piaggio exclaimed: "Sembra una vespa!" ("It looks like a wasp!") Piaggio effectively named his new scooter on the spot.

MP 6

The new extravagant vehicle is small, practical and relatively inexpensive, was targeting males and specially females, able to ride with a standard upright position wearing skirts.

The first Piaggio advertising campaign in 1946, was picturing a young riding woman, a very innovative a progressive message for the Italian market where for the first time the same year women obtained  the right to vote.

In 1953 the movie Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck changed the future of Vespa. Audrey’s character, in search of excitement, hops on board a Vespa and runs through the streets of Rome. The picture of Hepburn against the Roman cityscape backdrop was a romance forever pictured for decades to come.

As result Piaggio sold 100k units

The following years every movie produced wanted to have featured the Italian little scooter, even stars such as Marlon Brando,  Dean Martin or Charlton Heston were seen riding vespas. 

By 1970 Piaggio sold over 4 million Vespas worldwide.
The scooter designed by engineer Corradino D’Ascanio in 1946 had come to represent an idea of freedom.