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Home > MEXICO > Focalización
NAPLES SENDS ITALIAN AEROSPACE INDUSTRY INTO SPACE
The aerospace industry is one of the most qualified value-added technology sectors in Italy. Southern Italy, particularly in regions such as Campania and Puglia, has now become one of the country's major production centres. Campania’s aerospace sector takes up 16.7% of the Italian division, mainly located in the province of Naples, which hosts 78.7% of the region’s businesses. The main ‘heavy-weight’ company is Alenia Aeronautica (gruppo Finmeccanica), which employs over 2,000 people at its plant in Pomigliano d’Arco. Pomigliano d’Arco is the largest Alenia Aeronautica plant in the South.
Supporting the Alenia Aeronautica plant, specializing in construction of fuselages, is a progressively increasing number of (now approximately 100) small and medium-sized business, which make up 50% of the 10,000 field professionals in Campania. However, only some SME’s have been able to reach autonomous manufacture, particularly in regards to landing systems, components, and airplane interior design. Some have gained the expertise needed to become stable suppliers for major international conglomerates.
Just as done by Dema, which announced, at the beginning of 2008, the signing of a five-year contract with Canadian conglomerate Bombardier. The Neapolitan company, actively designing and manufacturing airplane components, announced, at the beginning of 2008, that it has signed a 5-year contract worth 20.8 million Euros with its North American partner. The company, founded in 1993 in Pozzuoli, began doing business in Canada in 2004 thanks to government-controlled Dema Aeronautics of Montreal. It employs approximately 400 people and posted revenues of 16 million Euros in 2007. For 2008, the company plans to double its proceeds and to reach 30 million. Among Dema's main international clients are companies belonging to the Finmeccanica conglomerate, as well as Eads Casa, Cira, and Bombardier.
A few years before Dema established itself in the province of Naples, another company by the name of Oma Sud began operations in 1988 as a manufacturer of aeronautical components. Twenty years later, the Neapolitan company reached a much more ambitious milestone by completely developing the «Skycar Project»: a piston-driven, twin-engine, 5-seater, Made in Italy aircraft that the company plans to launch onto the international general aviation market. In June 2008, less than six months away from Skycar’s first official flight, Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki, during his visit to the Italian industry headquarters, announced that he intends to purchase the new aircraft.
Other significant aerospace operations exist in Campania, outside the Naples City Limits. One such company is Merlino Technology of Benevento, which was originally created as a spin-off of one of the software development departments of Lombardy-based Carlo Gavazzi Space. Today, Merlino is a member of the Antares consortium, founded in 2005 at San Giorgio del Sannio (town of manufacture of the computer for the «Agile» satellite, entirely created by Italian research institutes and Italian companies and launched into space in April 2007) with the objective of building small satellites to sell on global scale, especially to those emerging countries that do not yet possess high-tech telecommunications devices. They have already received important commissions from North Africa. Merlino Technology, in particular, offers knowledgeable software development for drivers and on board applications, ground applications/services/data processing, and support in providing and managing value-added services.
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