Alenia Aeronautica

Alenia Aeronautica was an Italian aerospace company. Its subsidiaries included Alenia Aermacchi and Alenia Aeronavali; Alenia Aeronautica was also the part-owner of ATR, a joint venture with European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A.
Private Subsidiary
IndustryAerospace and defence
FateMerged
PredecessorAeritalia
Selenia
SuccessorAlenia Aermacchi
Founded1990
DefunctJanuary 2012
Headquarters
Rome
,
Italy
Number of locations
Pomigliano, Turin, Venice, Varese, Grottaglie, Casoria, Nola, Foggia
ProductsCombat and Defense Aircraft
Trainer Aircraft (Alenia Aermacchi)
Military Air Lifters
Patrol Aircraft
Regional Turboprop (ATR)
Regional Turbofan (Superjet-100)
ServicesAero structures
Overhaul and Modifications (Alenia Aeronavali)
Revenue € 2.53 billion (FY2008)
€250 million
OwnerLeonardo S.p.A.
Number of employees
13,910
ParentLeonardo S.p.A.
DivisionsAlenia Aermacchi
Alenia Aeronavali
Alenia Composite
Alenia SIA
Quadrics
SubsidiariesAlenia North America
ATR
Superjet 100
Websitewww.leonardocompany.com/en 

During January 2012, the company was reorganized as Alenia Aermacchi.[1] Three years later, Alenia Aermacchi was fully incorporated into Finmeccanica, which has since reorganised itself as a more integrated business, adopting the Leonardo name for the group

History

Alenia Aeronautica was created during 1990 by concentrating the Finmeccanica[2] aerospace and defense industries Aeritalia and Selenia. During 2002, Alenia Aeronautica was incorporated when Finmeccanica restructured itself, spinning off its various divisions as independent companies. Finmeccanica has since reorganised itself into a more closely integrated business, adopting the Leonardo name for the group.[3]

Immediately upon its creation, Alenia was associated with several ongoing aircraft programmes, including the multinational Eurofighter Typhoon fighter programme, the Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber, along with various other initiatives and partnerships. Its work on the Tornado was largely conducted via Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a tri-national consortium consisting of British Aerospace (previously British Aircraft Corporation), MBB of West Germany, and its Aeritalia subsidiary. Under this arrangement, Aeritalia manufactured the Tornado's wings on behalf of all international customers while the other partners manufactured the rest of the airframe.[4] It also held a 20 per cent stake in the Tornado's engine manufacturer Turbo-Union, a separate multinational company formed to develop and build the RB199 engines for the aircraft.[5][6] Production of the Tornado was terminated during 1998; the final batch of aircraft being produced was delivered to the Royal Saudi Air Force, who had ordered a total of 96 IDS Tornados.[7]

RAF Typhoon FGR4 ZK356 shows off its delta wing, July 2016

During the 1990s, the in-development Eurofighter proceeded towards the mass production phase, Alenia holding a workshare stake in the programme. The workshare split had originally been agreed at 33/33/21/13 (United Kingdom/Germany/Italy/Spain) based on the number of units being ordered by each contributing nations.[8] However, following order cuts during the peace dividend following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the programme's workshare split was renegotiated as 43% for EADS MAS in Germany and Spain; 37.5% for BAE Systems in the UK; and 19.5% for Alenia.[9][8] On 27 March 1994, the maiden flight of the Eurofighter prototype took place in Bavaria, flown by DASA chief test pilot Peter Weger.[10] Production was divided into three tranches, these being a production/funding distinction without directly implying an incremental increase in capability with each tranche. Tranche 3 was later divided into A and B parts.[11] In September 1998, contracts were signed for production of 148 Tranche 1 aircraft and procurement of long lead-time items for Tranche 2 aircraft.[12] In March 2008, the final aircraft out of Tranche 1 was delivered to the German Air Force, with all successive deliveries being at the Tranche 2 standard or above.[13]

During 1992, Aermacchi signed a cooperation agreement with Russian aircraft company Yakovlev to support a new trainer that the firm was developing for the Russian Air Force; Aermacchi secured the right to modify and market the aircraft for the Western market.[14] The resulting aircraft first flew in 1996 and was brought to Italy during the following year; by this point, the aircraft was being marketed as the Yak/AEM-130.[15] In October 1998, it was reported that the venture was increasingly becoming an Italian-led effort due to a lack of Russian financial support.[16] By July 2000, Aermacchi held a 50% stake in the programme while Yakovlev and Sokol had a 25% share each.[17] In mid-2000, it was announced that differences between the two firms and a lack of backing from the Russian participants had ended the partnership; instead, each company would pursue independent development; Yakovlev received a final payment of US$77 million for technical documents.[18][19] Yakovlev would be able to sell the Yak-130 to countries such as those in the Commonwealth of Independent States, India, Slovakia and Algeria, while Aermacchi had the right to sell the M-346 to NATO nations and others.[18] The M-346 is a highly modified version of the aircraft that developed under the joint venture, using equipment exclusively from Western manufacturers.[19][17][20] The first M-346 prototype rolled out on 7 June 2003, and conducted its maiden flight on 15 July 2004.[21]

M-346 prototype 002 at Le Bourget airshow, 2005

In January 2005, the Greek Ministry of Defence signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to become a partner in the programme; an industrial cooperation agreement between Alenia and the Hellenic Aerospace Industry during the following year.[22] In March 2008, the Chilean ENAER signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Alenia at the FIDAE air show.[23] During May 2008, Boeing signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on the marketing, sales, training and support of two Aermacchi trainers, the M-346 and the M-311.[24] On 18 December 2008, Aermacchi announced that the M-346 had attained a maximum speed of Mach 1.15 (1,255 km/h, 678 knots, 780 mph), claiming the occasion to be the first in which an all-Italian built aircraft had broken the sound barrier in 50 years.[25] On 20 June 2011, a Military Type Certification was granted to Alenia Aermacchi for the M-346 Master by the General Directorate for Aeronautical Armaments of the Italian Ministry of Defence in Rome.[26]

In 1995, Alenia and Lockheed Martin began discussions to improve Alenia's G.222 utility transport aircraft using C-130J's glass cockpit and a more powerful version of the G.222's T64G engine and four-blade propellers. In 1996, a program began on an improved G.222, designated C-27J; it used a U.S. military type designation based on the G.222's C-27A designation. In 1997, Alenia and Lockheed Martin formed Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport Systems (LMATTS) to develop the C-27J. The design changed to use the C-130J Super Hercules's Rolls-Royce AE 2100 engine and six-blade propeller.[27] Other changes include a fully digital MIL-STD-1553 systems and avionics architecture, and an updated cargo compartment for increased commonality.[28] The C-27J has a 35% increase in range and a 15% faster cruise speed than the G.222.[27] Alenia Aeronautica paired with American defense specialist L-3 Communications to form the Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS) joint venture to market the C-27J;[29] American aerospace company Boeing also joined GMAS.[30] During 2007, it was announced that the C-37J had been selected by the US Defense Department for its Joint Cargo Aircraft programme;[31] the C-27J team was awarded an initial contract worth US$2.04 billion for 78 C-27Js in June 2007.[32]

Products

Aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicles

Collaborations

Missiles
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gollark: Well, you don't compile it to bytecode or something.
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gollark: No.
gollark: Because, as I said, copypasting HTML in each page instead of doing it centrally makes making changes horrible.

See also

References

Citations
  1. "Anni 1961 – 1972 Il boom economico e l'Aeritalia – Finmeccanica". www.finmeccanica.com. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  2. "Storia – Finmeccanica". www.finmeccanica.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  3. "LEONARDO: FILING OF ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION". www.leonardocompany.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  4. Segell 1997, p. 125.
  5. Segell 1997, p. 124.
  6. Long, Wellington. "Swing-Wing Wonder Weapon Is Going Into Production." Ludington Daily News,24 August 1976.
  7. Jackson et al. 1998, p. 241.
  8. Eurofighter: Weapon of Mass Construction (TV broadcast). BBC, 6 July 2003 airdate.
  9. Haertl, Ronald. "Eurofighter—A Milestone Report". Archived 26 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine European Security and Defence. Retrieved: 3 July 2011.
  10. "1994: Maiden flight for future fighter jet." BBC News, 27 February 1994. Retrieved: 19 March 2008.
  11. Hoyle, Craig. "Eurofighter partners sign €9 billion Tranche 3A deal." Flight International via flightglobal.com, 31 July 2009. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  12. Chuter, Andy. "EF2000 deal firms up first batch order." Flight International, 23 September 1998.
  13. Holm, Kathryn and Martina Schmidmeir. "German Air Force: 10,000 Flying Hours with the Eurofighter." Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine Eurofighter.com, 16 March 2009. Retrieved: 3 July 2011.
  14. Moxon, Julian. "Aermacchi proves Yak-130/AEM performance." Flight International, 7 August 1996.
  15. "Yak/Aermacchi trainer funds released; Russia will buy up to 200." Aviation Week, 27 February 1996.
  16. "Italy studies the Yak/AEM-130 as Russia falters." Flight International, 21 October 1998.
  17. "F124 engine turns Yak-130 into the Aermacchi 346." Flight International, 25 July 2000.
  18. Butowski, Piotr (1 May 2002). "Russian military trainer strategy falls into place; the selection of the Yak-130 marks an important step towards replacing the country's aging fleet of L-39Cs". Interavia Business & Technology. Aerospace Media Publishing. ISSN 1423-3215. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  19. "Aermacchi assembles M-346 trainer team to replace Russians." Flight International, 1 August 2000.
  20. Doyle, Andrew. "Aermacchi may seek new engine for Yak-130." Flight International, 1 February 2000.
  21. CAE wins contract for the development and supply of Alenia Aermacchi’s M-346 simulator (press release), 2004, archived from the original on 24 March 2006.
  22. Peruzzi, Luca. "Greece’s HAI snatches stake in M346 trainer programme." Flight International, 24 January 2006.
  23. "Alenia Aermacchi e Lacilena Enaer siglano MOU per M.346 e M.311" [ENAER signed a Memorandum of Understanding], Dedalo news, IT, March 2008, archived from the original on 3 March 2009.
  24. "Boeing signed a Memorandum of Understanding", Defense News.
  25. "The Aermacchi M-346 advanced trainer breaks the sound barrier. After 50 years an all-Italian aircraft flies at Mach 1" (PDF) (Press release). Alenia Aermacchi. 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  26. "M-346 Master Gains Military Certification" Air Forces Monthly (Key Publishing), Issue 282, September 2011, pp. 10. ISSN 0955-7091. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  27. Frawley, Gerald. "LMATTS C-27J Spartan". The International Directory of Military Aircraft, 2002/2003. Fishwyck, ACT: Aerospace Publications, 2002. ISBN 1-875671-55-2.
  28. "Enhancing Tactical Transport Capabilities" (PDF). Paper presented at the RTO SCI Symposium. Alenia Aerospazia and Lockheed Martin. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  29. "C-27J Team." Archived 2 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine "C-27J Spartan." Retrieved: 11 June 2011.
  30. "Boeing Jumps on JCA Competition." Archived 30 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Air Force magazine, 2 May 2006.
  31. "C-27J tapped for Joint Cargo Aircraft", Air Force Times, 14 June 2007.
  32. C-27J Spartan named as Joint Cargo Aircraft

Bibliography
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