THE AVIO AERO

PEOPLE’S MAGAZINE

Developing and maturing key technologies for the medium and long range aircraft that will take off in the near future, in other words for Large Passenger Aircraft (LPA): that’s to say, the giant airplanes in which we will soon travel to faraway cities and continents.

This was the mission of the 4-day symposium organized and hosted by Avio Aero in Turin and which, according to the roughly 100 eminent participants, was a memorable success. Present were many representatives of the biggest companies in the aviation sector (Casa, Dassault, Saab, Safran, Rolls-Royce, to name a few), led by Airbus, but also representatives of various of the most technologically advanced SMEs and the main European research institutes and universities.

Between 2014 and 2023, the European Union will devote to this technological platform about one third of the total funding of Clean Sky 2, the huge European research project focused on reducing environmental impact by next-generation aircraft. The LPA platform covers 3 major fields of research: Engine-Aircraft Integration, Cabin Structure and Systems, and Command Cabins and Avionics.

From April 25 to 28, dozens of conferences were held, with speeches from influential design planners, managers and researchers illustrating numerous different aspects of engine and aircraft design for the large airplanes of the future.

This, in other words, was an event that during its main conference sessions looked at aviation and its future technological prospects from every angle: engines, aircraft, interiors, passengers and airports.

The results were highly useful, extending well beyond knowledge exchanges and explanations, especially thanks to the presence of external auditors and official members of Clean Sky and the European Commission, who were able to evaluate and approve various important technical advances and progress.

On the first evening, the guests visited Turin’s historical center, while the following two evenings both involved very special gala dinners, one in the majestic Venaria Palace and the other, in conclusion, in the enchanting hillside setting of Villa Somis. 

A major opportunity, finally, was offered to Piedmont companies in the symposium’s last session, with the Horizon 2020 event: in collaboration with the Turin Chamber of Commerce, approximately thirty local SMEs were able to learn about, and to propose themselves as active players in, the Clean Sky 2 program, counting both on support from major companies and in particular on references supplied by Avio Aero concerning its successful collaborations carried out in Piedmont and elsewhere in Italy. The main guest at this session was Sebastiano Fumero, Aviation section officer of the European Commission’s DG-Research.

 “Organizing the running of such a major event was certainly an intense challenge. At the end we took away extremely positive feedback, reinforcing our image as a highly professional organization and a totally focused team”, commented Giacomo Senatore, Avio Aero’s Program Manager of EU Research Projects, after the 4-day event, “but undoubtedly, the most important confirmation for us concerns our performance as a key Clean Sky player, a role which our company continues to highlight.”