Alfa Romeo Pomigliano d'Arco Plant

The Alfa Romeo Pomigliano d'Arco plant, commonly known as the Alfasud Pomigliano and renamed in 2008 as "Giambattista Vico" in memory of the Neapolitan philosopher, is a car factory, situated in the town of Pomigliano d'Arco, and partly in Acerra. The factory is nowadays owned by the Fiat S.p.A. Designed in 1968 by Alfa Romeo, the factory began car production in 1972. Today the plant has about 6,000 employees. The last Alfa Romeo model produced in Pomigliano was the Alfa Romeo 159 on 28 October 2011, the factory was converted to build the new Fiat Panda.

In 1938 the Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale commissioned the Alfa Romeo to build a large plant for the production of aircraft engines coupled with a small airport.

The choice fell on Pomigliano d'Arco, and thanks to the work of the engineer Ugo Gobbato it gave birth to a technologically advanced Aeronautical Center, able to produce engines for the technologically advanced era. The industrial complex completed just before the outbreak of World War II was one of the largest and most modern in Europe. To improve the living conditions of employees, residents in the area, there was built from scratch an entire neighborhood with about six hundred homes each of which had a small garden, while for foreigners it was built a hotel about seven hundred people.

In 1942 began series production of Daimler engines, the most commonly used by German companies. In 1943 the complex was completed with two other aerospace centers of production, for "complete structures" and "light alloys". Shortly after, two bombs destroyed the cities along the Alfa Romeo factory.

The production of aircraft engines did not start until 1952, when the reconstruction and establishment of the city was done.

Meanwhile, Finmeccanica had founded, in part of the Aeronautical Center, the Officine di Costruzioni Aeronautiche e Ferroviarie Aerfer. Initially there was produced railway vehicles and trolleybuses then the '"Aerfer" also worked on commission for the production of parts for fighter jets for the Air Force and NATO. Just the experience of construction of these parts, since the second half of the fifties, the Pomigliano began to be based development and construction of new prototypes for fighter aircraft, whose projects were financially supported by the United States.

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