Fiat Aviazione
Private | |
Industry | Aeronautics |
---|---|
Founded | 1908 |
Founder | Giovanni Agnelli |
Defunct | 1969 |
Fate | Merged with Aerfer |
Successor | Aeritalia |
Headquarters | , Italy |
Key people | |
Products | Aircraft |
Fiat Aviazione was an Italian
In 1969, Fiat Aviazione merged with Aerfer to create Aeritalia, which would become Alenia Aeronautica in 1990.
History
The beginning
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 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.[1]
In Turin, besides aircraft engines, and always along the lines of the internal-combustion engine, Fiat diversified production with 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
From biplanes to jet aircraft
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,
After the First World War
At the end of the
Merger with the Società Aeronautica d’Italia
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 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 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 the CMASA factory in Marina di Pisa, the first single-seater fighter plane employed by the Italian Air Force.
After the Second World War
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 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.[2]
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
In 1961, Fiat Aviazione took on the role of Italian prime contractor for the NATO
Setting up of the Aeritalia Company
In 1969, Fiat and Finmeccanica set up 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 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 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.
Changing the name to Fiat Avio
With the change of the company name to Fiat Avio in 1989, the Turin Company collaborated on 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
Products
Aircraft
- Giuseppe Gabrielli series
- Fiat G.2
- Fiat G.5
- Fiat G.8
- Fiat G.12
- Fiat G.18
- Fiat G.46
- Fiat G.49
- Fiat G.50
- Fiat G.55
- Fiat G.61
- Fiat G.80
- Fiat G.82
- Fiat G.91
- Fiat G.91Y
- Fiat G.212
- Fiat G.222
- Aldo Guglielmetti series
- Celestino Rosatelli series
- Fiat B.R.
- Fiat B.R.1
- Fiat B.R.2
- Fiat BR.20
- Fiat BRG
- Fiat C.29
- Fiat CR.1
- Fiat CR.20
- Fiat CR.25
- Fiat CR.30
- Fiat CR.32
- Fiat C.R.33
- Fiat C.R.40
- Fiat C.R.41
- Fiat CR.42
- Fiat R.2
- Fiat R.22
- Fiat-Ansaldo A.120
- Fiat-Ansaldo A.S.1
- Fiat CANSA F.C. 12
- Fiat CANSA F.C.20
- Fiat RS.14
- Fiat M.F.4
- Helicopters
Aircraft engines
- Fiat SA8/75
- Fiat S.55
- Fiat A.10
- Fiat A.12
- Fiat A.14
- Fiat A.15
- Fiat A.20
- Fiat A.22
- Fiat A.24
- Fiat A.25
- Fiat A.30
- Fiat A.50
- Fiat A.53
- Fiat A.54
- Fiat A.55[4]
- Fiat A.58 [4]
- Fiat A.59
- Fiat A.60
- Fiat A.74
- Fiat A.76
- Fiat A.78 [4]
- Fiat A.80
- Fiat A.82
- Fiat AS.2 Schneider Trophy 1926
- Fiat AS.3
- Fiat AS.5 Schneider Trophy 1929
- Fiat AS.6 Schneider Trophy 1931
- Fiat AN.1 Diesel
- Fiat 4002
- Fiat 4004
- Fiat 4301
- Fiat 4700
See also
- Aeritalia
- Alenia Aeronautica
- List of Italian companies
Further reading
- Gunston, Bill (2005). World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers, 2nd Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited. p. 164. ISBN 0-7509-3981-8.
References
- ^ "AVIO". Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ^ a b c [La Storia futura - Stefano Musso Professor of History of Political Movements and Parties at the Faculty of Political Science, Turin University - 2008– ©AVIO S.p.A.]
- ^ [G. G. Gabrielli – Una vita per l’aviazione – 1982 Edizioni Bompiani]
- ^ a b c Grey 1972 pp.68d-71d