Società per azioni | |
Industry | Aeronautical, Defence, Space, Marine, Electronics, Energy |
Predecessor | Fiat Aviazione |
Founded | 1908Turin, Italy | in
Headquarters | Rivalta di Torino, Turin, Italy |
Key people
|
Giulio Ranzo (CEO) |
Products | Components and modules for aircraft and helicopter engines, Space propulsion and launch vehicles, MRO and services for aircraft engines and aeroderivative gas turbines, Electronic and electrical systems |
Revenue | €292 million (2016) |
Owner |
Cinven (81%) Leonardo S.p.A. (14%) |
Website | www |
Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Rivalta di Torino, Turin, Italy. Founded in 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operates in 5 main business areas in the civil and military sectors:
Avio is Prime Contractor for the new European launcher Vega.
The company is active in the field of technological research. It carries out projects in collaboration with 14 among Italian universities and research centres and 10 foreign, 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.
In 1908, aeronautical production was in its early stages in Turin, Italy. At that time Fiat decided to design and produce an airplane engine, the SA 8/75, derived from racing cars. The first mass-produced engine produced by Fiat was the A10. 1,070 units were created between 1914 and 1915: at this point the pioneer age had come to an end and the company decided to design and construct complete aircraft. Thus in 1916 the Società Italiana Aviazione was founded, changing its name in 1918 to Fiat Aviazione.
In Turin, besides aircraft engines, and along the lines of the internal-combustion engine, Fiat diversified production with the construction in 1909 of Fiat San Giorgio for marine diesel engines, the area from which activities in the field of industrial engines for electric power generation later ensued. In Colleferro (Rome), the Bombrini Parodi-Delfino-BPD Company, established in Genoa in 1912, started manufacturing explosives and chemical products, from which the space segment originated.
The aeronautical field began in Brindisi with the SACA Company. Gradually, other companies began such as the CMASA di Marina Company in Pisa, founded in 1921 by German design engineer Claude Dornier, in collaboration with Rinaldo Piaggio and Attilio Odero.
Avio were present in the development and manufacture of engines for the production of electric energy, having developed large engines for ships.
Fiat started the study of marine engines in 1903. Beginning from 1926, with engineer Giovanni Chiesa, the manufacture with engines with 750mm-diameter cylinders, the maximum diameter permitted by technologies of the time, which increased engine power up to 4,500HP. In 1971, production began on large diesel engines in Trieste, in a new factory established through a collaboration agreement with the state company IRI (Institute for Industrial Reconstruction).