On May 19th the trip between the districts to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the CTNA stops at the International Training Center in Turin with an event dedicated to the opportunities and synergies for innovation in Piedmont.
Fulvia Quagliotti, President of the DAP association, welcomed the event and brought greetings from the vice-president, Andrea Romiti, and the director, Marco Galimberti.
President Quagliotti opens the day by paying homage to the CTNA and its first ten years of activity, recalling its importance at a national level with particular regard to the aggregation function on the national territory, the leadership role thanks to a very active technical committee and the activity of youth training with recent projects, in which young Piedmontese students have distinguished themselves on a national scale.
This is followed by a parenthesis on the long aerospace tradition of Piedmont which began on 13 January 1909, the year in which the first entirely Italian-built aircraft designed by the engineer was built. Aristide Faccioli, and whose test flight was carried out at Campo Mirafiori in Turin. The aircraft were born as Fiat and evolved up to the current Leonardo aircraft, then developing the propulsion part with Avio Aero and the space part which transformed from a small company into Thales Alenia Space.
From then to today: with a degree award that the Piedmont aerospace district established for an analysis of companies that deal partially or entirely with aerospace in the area some interesting data emerge:
350 companies concentrated mostly in the province of Turin because four of the five big players in the sector are in this area (but the province of Novara also boasts a certain number of companies, thanks also to the proximity of Leonardo helicopters.)
7 billion turnover of which, it is clear, the most important part is due lead back to large companies, but medium and small companies are also present and contribute, which in recent years have grown and established themselves by collaborating online with the entire Italian territory and also boasting international relationships. Latest data: around 20 thousand employees.
In short, the leap forward was great. The DAP association, which was established on 30 January 2019 to give continuity to the activities previously carried out by the aerospace district committee, in just three years and with all the limitations of the pandemic, has seen its members grow from 53 to 80, while the SMEs have increased from 35 to 58.
The attention towards the needs and possibilities for advancement of the territory are also amply demonstrated by the development plan of the DAP 2022-2024 which was drawn up on the basis of the indications of the working groups (innovation, training , internationalization) opened in 2019 and expanded with subsequent additions by the members and with the updates made necessary following the changes that occurred in the sector. To date, there are essentially five guidelines: the aerospace ecosystem (strategic initiative linked to the reality of the aerospace city), innovation, training, internationalization and finally promotion and visibility to communicate the activities promoted by the district.
The morning continues with a program that thinks positively and focuses on the present and future opportunities that make Piedmont innovative.
Prestigious guests and three panels to analyze the function of aerospace as a driver of economic development and local businesses with a special focus dedicated to the aerospace city project.
Councilor Andrea Tronzano greets the audience by sending a clear message: “Turin believes in it and demands its space but always in collaboration and never in negative competition with others; this is due to his desire to achieve goals together.” A statement that implies the team spirit with which the Piedmont region works. Special thanks also to the Polytechnic of Turin, to the Universities and to everyone. The merit of the advancement also goes to initiatives such as ESA BIC and DIANA, the NATO accelerator, two fundamental realities for the leap in quality and for the young people who study in this sector; a generation with clear ideas that will change the country.
And then there is the City of Space. “Laying the first stone by the end of the mandate as a compendium of a five-year team activity would be desirable.” Tronzano proudly states.
This is followed by the speech of Prof. Francesco Profumo, the Minister who conceived and started the National Technology Clusters.
Immediately afterwards the floor goes to Cristina Leone – President of the CTNA.
It is with Cristina Leone that the theme of traveling between districts is addressed, a traveling project that contains a very precise basic idea: if it is true that aerospace is based on a solid tradition, it is equally true that without the innovation it is not possible to evolve and overcome national borders.
The national technological Cluster is a central point of reference but its strength comes from the individual territories of which it is made up and its mission is to push them forward to make Italy grow together: in parallel with the leading territories in the aerospace sector, smaller entities must also evolve , but equally important in a broader vision.
“The priorities are represented by the strategic directions that guide the daily work of the CTNA and which are: sustainability, digitalisation and competitiveness, expressed through the technical committee to achieve the objective of pooling resources, ideas and finances to overcome national borders and compete as best as possible to open up to international programs such as Clean Aviation. To achieve this objective it is necessary to leverage what we have and commit to building the future continuously”, says Cristina Leone.
Another important factor to guarantee innovation is the involvement of new generations; in this regard, in the last two years the Aerospace Technology Cluster has expanded its range of action, also involving schools. The President explains that “It is more necessary than ever to encourage even the littlest ones to become passionate about scientific subjects in order to have new and interesting profiles in the future. To discover new intelligence and encourage talent, the CTNA has created a series of initiatives proposing models and activities diversified according to age groups, from primary school to university and these activities are enjoying great success.”
With the idea that the collaboration can be so transversal as to make subjects of different ages interact, because even their vision can soon become an interesting reality, we arrive at the moment of the screening of the video created by the CTNA with the contribution of the historian and journalist Gregory Alegi to show what was told orally about the tenth anniversary of the CTNA, the birth and development of the districts with regard to the development of the tradition of the aerospace sector from its origins to today.
The panels followed, in which the topics mentioned above were explained in detail.
Video of the event
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bXkHfNy8cXJ9YOt5d6Xj70oR0M97G2pD
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