Buying a bankrupt legend

Vulcanair began as a spare-parts producer near Naples, set up by the De Feo family in 1996. Its opportunity was the collapse of Partenavia, the company Luigi Pascale had founded in 1957. Partenavia had built about 450 of its twin-engined P68s before falling into state hands and then into bankruptcy. Vulcanair bought all its assets, type designs, trademarks and rights, took over the SIAI-Marchetti SF.600 Canguro programme from Finmeccanica in 1997, and around 1998 absorbed Aercosmos, which had bought Partenavia from Alenia in 1993. The P68 type certificate passed to Vulcanair in 1998.

The Observer

The P68 had first flown at Naples on 25 May 1970: a six-seat, high-wing light twin with fixed tricycle gear and two Lycoming engines. Its most distinctive form is the Observer, certified in 1980, with a transparent nose built for observation. It suits police and surveillance work, and P68s have flown with the Italian State Police, the Hessen State Police, Britain’s National Police Air Service, the New York State Police, the Chilean Navy and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. Vulcanair restyled the interior, added a co-pilot door and upturned wingtips, and builds the P68C, the turbocharged P68C-TC, the retractable P68R and the Observer 2.

Kangaroos and new singles

The range also includes the turboprop AP68TP-600 Viator, an 11-seat stretched P68, and the SF.600 Canguro, a Stelio Frati design first flown on 30 December 1978, of which only about ten have been built. In 2014 Vulcanair added a four-seat single, the V1.0, certified by EASA in November 2013 and by the FAA in December 2017. Production takes place on a 60,000 square metre site at Capodichino airport, Naples, close to where the first P68s were built in the 1970s.

Fábricas

• Capodichino works · Naples Capodichino airport, Campania — 60,000 square metre production site

Pessoas

• Luigi Pascale · designer of the P68 — Founder of Partenavia
• Stelio Frati · designer of the Canguro