Avio

Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Created by a merger in 2003, and with roots tracing back to 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operates in: *solid-propellant motors for space and tactical propulsion *electronic/electrical control and automation systems Avio is Prime Contractor for the new European launcher Vega and sub-contractor for the Ariane program, both financed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The company is active in the field of technological research. It carries out projects in collaboration with 14 Italian and 10 foreign universities and research centres, which are aimed at the continuous improvement of product and process technologies. It also undertakes the research of solutions in order to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft engines, in conformity with the objectives of consumption and emissions reduction dictated, within the European area, by the ACARE body. Avio has 5 sites in Italy, France and French Guiana, and employs around 1200 people, about 30% of whom work in research and development. Avio is listed on the Milan stock exchange in the Star segment: in 2018 it had revenues of 388.7 million euros.

Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Created by a merger in 2003, and with roots tracing back to 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operates in: solid-propellant motors for space and tactical propulsion electronic/electrical control and automation systems Avio is Prime Contractor for the new European launcher Vega and sub-contractor for the Ariane program, both financed by the European Space Agency (ESA). The company is active in the field of technological research. It carries out projects in collaboration with 14 Italian and 10 foreign universities and research centres, which are aimed at the continuous improvement of product and process technologies. It also undertakes the research of solutions in order to reduce the environmental impact of aircraft engines, in conformity with the objectives of consumption and emissions reduction dictated, within the European area, by the ACARE body. Avio has 5 sites in Italy, France and French Guiana, and employs around 1200 people, about 30% of whom work in research and development. Avio is listed on the Milan stock exchange in the Star segment: in 2018 it had revenues of 388.7 million euros.

Development of explosives and propellants

The BPD industrial plants were established 50 km from Rome, along the railway line for Cassino, due to the initiative of the engineer Leopoldo Parodi – Delfino, supported by Senator Giovanni Bombrini, and the resolution of the State to provide the country with an independent production capacity in the chemical field. Situated in a poor region of Roman countryside, the town of Colleferro began around the industrial site and was elevated to a municipal district in 1935 by Royal Decree. The town grew in correlation with the production activities of BPD that, from explosives, extended to several chemical products derived for agricultural and industrial uses. The production plants developed and expanded attracting labour, and the company provided for social works. In 1927, the BPD Test Centre started to experiment on the first rockets powered by chemical powder. After the Second World War, on the initiative of Francesco Serra di Cassano, son-in-law and successor to BPD's founder, mechanical production, which had been started up in the 1930s for munitions activities, was developed and expanded. The Test Centre intensified experimentation on propellants, beginning with the launching of multi-stage sounding rockets for research in the upper atmosphere, produced at the Salto di Quirra military firing range in Sardinia, in the early 1960s. In 1966, following its success with the rockets, BPD entered into a contract with ELDO (forerunner of the European Space Agency – ESA) for the development and production of the apogee boost motor of the ELDO-PAS telecommunications satellite. This led to development in the field of solid-propellant motors. In 1968, the SNIA Viscosa Company took over BPD, which became SNIA-BPD. In 1975, under this company configuration, ESA initially gave the BPD branch of SNIA the task of developing and producing the separation motors of the European Ariane satellite launcher, and in 1984, the contract for the manufacture of the Ariane 5 boosters. The Ariane take-off motors have been completed now for over twenty years at the launch site in French Guiana, under the subsidiary companies Europropulsion and Regulus, set up in 1988. In 1990, SNIA sold the BPD branch to the Gilardini Company, which was bought by Fiat Aviazione in 1994. From 1989 Fiat Aviazione became FiatAvio S.p.A.

Production and activities

The company currently operates in Italy and abroad at its headquarters in Colleferro (Rome), and has other branches in Campania (Airola in the province of Benevento), Piedmont (Rivalta in the province of Turin) and France (Metropolitan and French Guiana) with a total of about 1000 employees¹. Main sectors of activities are: design, development and production of space launchers (the Vega launcher and its evolution Vega C); solid and liquid propellant propulsion systems for the Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 programmes; solid propellant propulsion systems for tactical missiles (Aster 30, Aspide, Marte and Camm-ER); liquid propellant propulsion systems for satellites; research and development.

References

External links

Official site (Italian) Official site (English)

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364233886 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.