Fiat Aviazione was an Italian aircraft manufacturer, at one time part of the Fiat group, focused mainly on military aviation. After World War I , Fiat consolidated several Italian small aircraft manufacturers, like Pomilio and Ansaldo . Most famous were the Fiat biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s, the Fiat CR.32 and the Fiat CR.42 . Other notable designs were the fighters CR.20 , G.50 , G.55 and a bomber, the Fiat BR.20 . In the 1950s, the company designed the G.91 light ground attack plane.
38-534: In 1969, Fiat Aviazione merged with Aerfer to create Aeritalia , which would become Alenia Aeronautica in 1990. In 1908, aeronautical production started taking its first steps in Turin , by Fiat, with the decision to design and produce an engine, the SA 8/75, derived from racing cars. It was the beginning of a centennial story whose heritage is today linked directly to Avio . The first mass-produced engine produced by Fiat
76-458: A few of the most important names with whom current partnerships go back over half a century. After the first pioneering design of aircraft engines at the beginning of the twentieth century, against the opinion of over-cautious directors towards new technologies and areas of activity, Giovanni Agnelli , one of Fiat's founder members, and technical director Guido Fornaca , supported aeronautical production, and started up on an industrial basis during
114-845: A founding member brought about the necessity for the modernization of all of the Italian armed forces, including the Italian Air Force. American military aid sent by the Mutual Defense Assistance Program brought about the introduction of American-made P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang propeller-driven fighter planes . In 1952, the Italian Air Force was granted jet fighters for the first time, American F-84G Thunderjets and F-86D Sabres , together with over 200 licence-built British de Havilland Vampires ; these were followed by Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighters and C-119 Flying Boxcar transport planes from
152-457: A participant in multinational air forces, such as that of NATO over the former Yugoslavia , just a few minutes flying time east of the Italian peninsula. The commanders of the Italian Air Force soon saw the need to improve the Italian air defences. The capability of the Italian Air Force as a transportation unit has been improved with the acquisition of 22 American C-130J tactical transports and 12 Alenia C-27J Spartans, which have replaced all of
190-593: A young design engineer, Giuseppe Gabrielli, to head the Aviation Technical Office. In 1934, the acquisition of the CMASA Company marked the entry of Fiat into the production of seaplanes. A great many of the targets achieved in the subsequent thirty-year period were linked to the genius of Gabrielli who quickly made a name for himself, beginning with the G2, a commercial plane with six seats besides
228-586: Is the Frecce Tricolori . From 1923 until the end of WW2 the Italian Air Force was called Regia Aeronautica . Italy was among the earliest adopters of military aviation. Its air arm dates back to 1884, when the Italian Royal Army ( Regio Esercito ) was authorised to acquire its own air component. The Air Service ( Corpo Aeronautico Militare ) operated balloons based near Rome. In 1911, reconnaissance and bombing sorties during
266-660: Is the air force of the Italian Republic . The Italian Air Force was founded as an independent service arm on 28 March 1923 by King Victor Emmanuel III as the Regia Aeronautica ("Royal Air Force"). After World War II , when Italy became a republic following a referendum, the Regia Aeronautica was given its current name. Since its formation, the service has held a prominent role in modern Italian military history . The acrobatic display team
304-558: The Aeritalia Company, who Fiat entrusted with the aircraft activities. Subsequently, through different international collaborations, Pomigliano d’Arco specialised in the development and production of components for the “hot parts” of jet engines and the overhaul of civil aero engines. Fiat concentrated instead on aero engines and transmissions for helicopters, assembled by Fiat Aviazione in 1976, with 3,700 employees, with production centres in Turin and Brindisi . This choice
342-733: The Italo-Turkish War by the Servizio Aeronautico represented the first use of heavier-than-air aircraft in armed conflict. On 28 March 1923, the Italian Air Force was founded as an independent service by King Vittorio Emanuele III of the Kingdom of Italy . This air force was known as the Regia Aeronautica (Royal Air Force). During the 1930s, the fledgling Regia Aeronautica was involved in its first military operations, first in Ethiopia in 1935, and later in
380-698: The SACA Company. Gradually, many other realities began such as the CMASA di Marina Company in Pisa , founded in 1921 by German design engineer Claude Dornier , in collaboration with Rinaldo Piaggio and Attilio Odero . Finally, interactions and exchanges, accumulation of skills and experience, and multi-faceted stimuli have come from the many varied forms of international collaboration that have taken place with major companies like General Electric , Rolls-Royce , Pratt & Whitney and Eurocopter , just to mention
418-532: The Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939. After a period of neutrality, Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940 alongside Germany. The Regia Aeronautica could deploy more than 3,000 aircraft, although fewer than 60% were serviceable. It fought from the icy steppes of Russia to the sands of the North African desert, losing men and machines. After the armistice of 8 September 1943 , Italy
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#1732787582892456-606: The aviation division of Fiat to create Aeritalia . The firm is remembered mostly in connection with the development of Italy's first supersonic jet, the Aerfer Sagittario 2 . This aeronautical company–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Italian corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Italian Air Force The Italian Air Force ( Italian : Aeronautica Militare ; AM , lit. ' military aeronautics ' )
494-679: The 1970s, the Air Force acquired the Italian Aeritalia G222 and the modern American C-130 Hercules tactical transport planes, capable of carrying cargo or paratroopers . It also received the new Aeritalia F-104S Starfighter fighters for ground attack and air-defence purposes. A push to expand the Italian aircraft industry led Italy into the huge trilateral project that developed the Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber and air-defence fighters along with West Germany and
532-761: The CMASA factory in Marina di Pisa, the first single-seater fighter plane employed by the Italian Air Force . In 1949, having overcome the uncertainties and difficulties of the Second World War, the Fiat aeronautical activities were reorganised in the Aviation area. Delays in the production typologies accumulated in the years of autarchy were soon overcome thanks to the technical competences of Gabrielli and
570-452: The F86 K. It entered into an agreement with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the production of jet engine components. The experience acquired through this work allowed the company to participate in the international call for tenders by NATO in 1954 for a light tactical fighter aircraft. The following year, the Italian project, named G.91 , obtained the order for three prototypes, in
608-539: The G222s. In 2003, the Italian Air Force extended its capabilities to small-scale land warfare by small special-forces units. This was accomplished by forming the 17º Stormo Incursori ("17th Special Operations Wing"), also known as RIAM ( Reparto Incursori Aeronautica Militare , "Air Force Raiders Group"), a unit that is primarily responsible for raids on land-based aeronautical compounds, forward air control missions and combat search and rescue operations. As of 2014,
646-740: The Great War to meet military orders. Therefore, the Società Italiana Aviazione (Italian Aviation Company) was established in 1916, and later passed to the Aviation Section of Fiat in 1918. The first mass-produced aeronautical engine (over 1,000 units), the Fiat A.10 , was installed in several aircraft between 1914 and 1915, such as the Farman, later produced under licence, and the three-engined Caproni bomber aircraft. At
684-702: The NATO F-104G aircraft and, under these circumstances, established collaboration relations with the Alfa Romeo Avio Company in Pomigliano d’Arco, near Naples, directly controlled by the Finmeccanica State Company. From the middle of the 1950s, under the guidance of the engineer Stefanutti, Alfa Romeo Avio had also intensified collaboration relations with Rolls-Royce and General Electric for aeronautical engines. In
722-710: The United Kingdom. Tornado fighters were still in service with all three nations, plus a few more, as of 2019. Italian companies worked with the Embraer Company of Brazil in a smaller project to develop and produce the AMX International AMX aircraft. In 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait , Italy joined the coalition forces, and for the first time in 45 years Italian pilots and aircraft were assigned to combat operations. Needing to replace
760-760: The United States. The reborn Italian aviation industry also began to develop and produce a few indigenous aircraft designs of its own, such as the Fiat G91 , the Aermacchi MB-326 , the Piaggio Aero P.166 and the line of Agusta-Bell helicopters. The first supersonic fighters added to the Italian Air Force were American-designed F-104 Starfighters that were produced by a group of several European aircraft companies, including Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm , Dornier , Fiat , Fokker and SABCA . During
798-468: The area of materials, electronics and safety systems and, on the other, to identify areas of specialisation in which to play a leading role at a worldwide level. The programme of refinement and improvement of quality control was a strategic factor that gave rise to Fiat Aviazione's success during those years. With the change of the company name to Fiat Avio in 1989, the Turin Company collaborated on
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#1732787582892836-636: The constitution in 1909 of Fiat San Giorgio for marine diesel engines, the area from which activities in the field of industrial engines for electric power generation later ensued. In Colleferro ( Rome ), the Bombrini Parodi-Delfino-BPD Company, established in Genoa in 1912, started manufacturing explosives and chemical products, from which the space segment originated. In the aeronautical field, roots grew in Brindisi with
874-502: The design and manufacturer of propulsion systems for the Panavia Tornado and Harrier jump jet (vertical/short takeoff and landing) in the military sector, and Boeing and Airbus in the commercial one, to mention the most important examples in both military and commercial fields. In 1997, the acquisition of the controlling stake in Alfa Romeo Avio from Finmeccanica was key to a national strategic project aimed at reducing
912-527: The end of the First World War , the technical and production resources accumulated during the conflict were directed at the emerging sector of the commercial aeroplane. The production of complete aircraft, already started up with the SP series, intensified under the guidance of design engineer Celestino Rosatelli who began his collaboration with Fiat in 1918. For about fifteen years, Rosatelli contributed to
950-479: The end of the Kingdom of Italy and the establishment of the Italian Republic on 18 June 1946. Hence the Regia Aeronautica lost its "Royal" designation, and it became the Aeronautica Militare , a name that it has continued to hold ever since. The Peace Treaty of Paris of 1947 placed severe restrictions on all of the Italian armed forces, but the establishment of NATO in 1949 with Italy as
988-419: The excessive fragmentation of the Italian companies and at increasing competitiveness through more systematic synergies. Aerfer Aerfer was an Italian manufacturing company created in 1955 by the merger of IMAM and Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali. The name is a contraction of Costruzioni Aeronautiche e Ferroviarie (Aeronautical and Railway Constructions). In 1969 it merged with Salmoiraghi and
1026-620: The famous CR and BR fighter and bomber aircraft while, thanks to its highly technical and reliable engines, Fiat aircraft had a run of world records: power, with the A14 of 700HP produced between 1917 and 1919; speed, with the 300 km/h achieved by the R700 in 1921; speed and airworthiness, with the AS2 engine that, installed on the Idromacchi M20, established the speed record for seaplanes and won
1064-452: The new climate of Atlantic and inter-European collaboration. Already in 1951, Gabrielli had designed the G.80 , the first Italian jet aircraft powered by a De Havilland “Goblin” turbojet engine. In the early 1950s, Fiat Aviazione started a production revival by means of American orders and, in particular, was the only company in Europe to obtain the licence from NATO for the construction of
1102-598: The obsolete F-104 Starfighters, Italy joined with Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom in the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon , which was expected to enter the Italian Air Force in 2000. In 1994, with the Typhoon still some years from introduction to service, 24 Panavia Tornado Air Defense Variant (ADV) interceptors were leased from the United Kingdom for a period of 10 years. The ADV Tornados served as fighter-interceptors to supplement and then to replace
1140-568: The old F-104 Starfighters. However, delays in the production of the Typhoon forced the Italians to seek a supplement, and then replacement, for the leased Tornado ADVs. With the UK lease due to expire in 2004, the Italian government wished to avoid a costly lease extension and instead opted to lease 34 F-16 Fighting Falcon multi-role fighter planes on multi-year leases from the US. The last of these fighters
1178-538: The pilot, destined to be used by the Società Aviolinee Italiane (Italian Airline Company), with Fiat as majority shareholder, which boasted original innovations and developments under six patents. While investments in the passenger and cargo transport sector continued with the opening up of European routes by civil airlines which used G18 and APR2 twin-engine monoplanes, the G50 was produced in 1937, in
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1216-727: The prestigious Schneider Cup in America in 1926; and speed again, with the new record attained by Francesco Agello in 1934 in an aeroplane powered by the Fiat AS6 engine of 3,100HP. In 1926, with the acquisition of the Ansaldo factory in Corso Francia , Turin, Fiat Aviazione merged with the Società Aeronautica d’Italia (Italian Aeronautical Company). In 1931, Vittorio Valletta, the then General Manager of Fiat, employed
1254-510: The same way as the English and French competitors, and then emerged as the winner, with the final decision being made in 1958. The G91 was affirmed as NATO's standard light fighter aircraft in the European zone, becoming the most important Italian postwar aircraft with over 700 planes produced, for the most part exported. In 1961, Fiat Aviazione took on the role of Italian prime contractor for
1292-650: The second half of the 1960s, following consistent orders of the DC-9 for the national flagship airline Alitalia , controlled by the IRI State Company, the collaboration began between McDonnell Douglas and Aerfer , an aeronautical and railway Construction Company established by Finmeccanica in 1950 on part of the Aeronautical Centre in Pomigliano d’Arco . In 1969, Fiat and Finmeccanica set up
1330-421: Was consistent with the transformation of the aeronautical industry's worldwide scenario, characterised by the formation of just a few large groups and growing specialisation and internationalisation. A twofold necessity ensued, on the one side, to put into the field collaborations crucial to bringing together the financial resources and technological competences required by an increasingly sophisticated production in
1368-610: Was divided into two sides, and the same fate befell the Regia Aeronautica . The Air Force was split into the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force in the south aligned with the Allies, and the pro-Axis Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana in the north until the end of the war. On 8 May 1945, the hostilities ended, beginning the rebirth of military aviation in Italy. A popular vote by the people resulted in
1406-639: Was returned to the United States in May 2012, following the Italian Air Force's acquisition of a sufficient number of Typhoons over a period of several years. The Typhoons are intended to replace all of the F-104, Tornado ADV and F-16 aircraft. The last of the Italian F-104s was withdrawn from service in 2004. Armed conflicts in Somalia , Mozambique and the nearby Balkans led to the Italian Air Force becoming
1444-535: Was the A10, created in 1,070 units between 1914 and 1915: at this point the pioneer age had come to an end and the company decided to design and construct complete aircraft (1969). Thus in 1916 the Società Italiana Aviazione was founded, changing its name in 1918 to Fiat. In Turin, besides aircraft engines, and always along the lines of the internal-combustion engine, Fiat diversified production with
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