Press & Media

Naples, 05 november 2010

And Italy took flight

Friday 5 November, Guido Moltedo's book "E l'Italia prese il volo - Vita di Renato Bonifacio/ Italy Took Flight-The Life of Renato Bonifacio" was presented in the Sala Bobbio of the Engineering Department of the University Federico II in Naples. 

"Renato Bonifacio, engineer, manager, visionary, man of adventure yet capable of moving without breaking the smallest knickknack in the china shop of domestic and international politics" - this is the concise description given on the book cover - pragmatic, blessed with an intuitive genius, with "his mind in Naples and his heart in Milan", projected Italy beyond its national boundaries, leading Aeritalia to become the important company that today is Alenia Aeronautica.
 
Born in 1923, with a degree in naval and mechanical engineering, he joined Eni in 1957. In 1971 he joined Finmeccanica as co-general manager. Appointed CEO of Aeritalia in 1974, he became its chairman in 1979: "his creature", within the space of a decade, had become one of the most active at the international level.
 
The alliances with foreign manufacturers, especially American (Boeing, McDonnell) and European (Aerospatiale, Mbb, Britsh Aerospace) were among Bonifacio's great insights. "We therefore owe Bonifacio - writes Romano Prodi in the book's introduction - a permanent sense of gratitude for having established a long-term strategy for the Italian aeronautics industry, a strategy that made it possible to build international alliances (…) which still today keep open the possibility of making future steps forward".
 
Mr. Fausto Cereti's speech was especially interesting. A former CEO of Aeritalia who worked for 20 years with the executive from  Castellamare di Stabia, he reminisced: "marvelous years in total accord, each one of us bringing his own enthusiasm". "A great 'manager, before the current Management Engineering even existed, capable of looking in every direction ". A capacity that led to the insight of him presenting Aeritalia as a partner in the 767 programme and drawing up agreements with the French in Aérospatiale, who were preparing a project analogous to the one developed by Aeritalia in the regional aircraft market. The two projects, later unified, gave rise to the adventure narrated in Chapter V of the book ("The ATR and international risks"). Bonifacio, still in the words of Cereti, was also influential in ending the ancient rivalry with the Navy, that decided to equip itself with airplanes.
 
"Thinking big" was one of the keystones in the figure of Bonifacio emphasized by Giovanni Bertolone, Finmeccanica EVP Operations. This aspect of Bonifacio'genious was the premise for challenges that are still ongoing, including the C-27J (the forerunner of which was the G.222), the competences spent in the relationship with Sukhoi (that grew out of the ATR experience), the increased cooperation with Eastern Europe, the research in the composite sector (also developed in the work on the Boeing 767) and the AMX programme (of which the premise was the Tornado committment).
 
Guido Moltedo also explains that while a 'curriculum vitae' is limited to tracing a person's career and successes, a biography tells the story of an age that is brought to life by personal events. The choice of Bonifacio - "a reformer with the courage to take on existing things and pursue processes of change despite the natural resistance that arose "- is therefore not surprising as a starting point to take a look at a fascinating cross-section of industry and Italy, the birth of "globalization", State industry and the First Republic. It is the story of an Italy that is still capable of competing at the highest levels of innovation, as in the case of Alenia Aeronautica.