A merger ordered from Rome

Alenia was born in 1990 by decree of its state owners. The holding company IRI, through Finmeccanica, merged two subsidiaries: Aeritalia, the aircraft maker formed in 1969 out of Fiat’s aviation arm and Aerfer, and Selenia, its defence-electronics sister. The new Alenia inherited almost every Italian military aircraft programme at once: the G.222 transport, the AMX attack jet built with Embraer, half of the ATR regional airliner venture with France, and Italy’s share of Panavia. Its aeronautics business was renamed Alenia Aerospazio in 1996 and Alenia Aeronautica in 2000, and was incorporated as a separate company when Finmeccanica restructured in 2002.

Wings for Tornado, a share of Typhoon

As a Panavia partner Alenia built the wings for every Tornado, and held 20 per cent of the Turbo-Union engine consortium; production ended in 1998 with a final batch for Saudi Arabia. It also took a 19.5 per cent workshare in the Eurofighter Typhoon, whose prototype first flew in Bavaria on 27 March 1994; in September 1998 contracts were signed for 148 Tranche 1 aircraft. In 2003 Finmeccanica bought Aermacchi, the historic trainer maker of Varese, bringing it into Alenia’s orbit.

A Russian trainer and a parting of ways

Aermacchi had already embarked on a remarkable partnership. In 1992 it signed an agreement with Yakovlev to develop a new jet trainer for the Russian Air Force, with Aermacchi holding Western marketing rights. The aircraft flew in 1996 as the Yak/AEM-130, but Russian money dried up and in 2000 the partners split, Yakovlev taking a final payment of 77 million dollars. From one design came two rival aircraft: the Yak-130 for Russia and the M-346 Master for the West. The M-346 first flew on 15 July 2004 and in December 2008 reached Mach 1.15, which Aermacchi called the first time an all-Italian aircraft had gone supersonic in 50 years.

The Spartan: triumph and a $486 million scrapheap

Alenia’s best-known product, the C-27J Spartan, grew from the G.222 with the engines, six-bladed propellers and glass cockpit of Lockheed Martin’s C-130J. It first flew on 24 September 1999 and in 2007 won the US Joint Cargo Aircraft competition, with an initial 2.04 billion dollar contract for 78. Then Washington changed its mind: the US Air Force retired its Spartans in 2012, and newly built aircraft flew straight to the Davis–Monthan boneyard. Worse followed for the old G.222. Of 20 refurbished for the Afghan Air Force at a cost of 486 million dollars, 16 were sold as scrap for about 32,000 dollars in 2014. By 2022, 117 C-27Js had nonetheless been built for some 15 countries.

Barrels for the Dreamliner, then Leonardo

Alenia’s biggest civil bet was on Boeing. It invested more than 600 million dollars to build two centre fuselage sections of the 787 Dreamliner in composites, at a new factory at Grottaglie near Taranto with a clean room of 6.2 million cubic feet, said to be the largest in Europe. On 1 January 2012 Alenia Aeronautica merged with Aermacchi to form Alenia Aermacchi, with plants at Turin, Venegono and Pomigliano. Four years later, on 1 January 2016, it was absorbed into Finmeccanica, which renamed itself Leonardo, and the Alenia name disappeared from aircraft.

Factories

• Turin (Caselle) · San Maurizio Canavese, Piedmont
• Pomigliano d’Arco · Province of Naples, Campania
• Venegono Superiore · Varese, Lombardy — Former Aermacchi trainer plant, part of Alenia Aermacchi from 2012
• Grottaglie · near Taranto, Apulia — 787 composite centre fuselage sections

People

• Antonio Perfetti · chief operating officer, Alenia Aeronautica (2007)

Records and firsts

• M-346 reached Mach 1.15 in December 2008, claimed as the first supersonic flight by an all-Italian aircraft in 50 years
• Grottaglie clean room, 6.2 million cubic feet, described as the largest in Europe