Alenia North America, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a subsidiary of Alenia Aeronautica and part of the Finmeccanica group of companies. Alenia North America's mission is to be the partner of choice in the North American aerospace market. The company is focused on managing its industrial assets and introducing new products in the U.S. and Canada.
Alenia Aeronautica is the largest Italian aerospace company and a worldwide leader in commercial and military aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles and aerostructures. Alenia Aeronautica also coordinates the activities of Alenia Aermacchi and Alenia Aeronavali. Alenia Aermacchi is active in the design and manufacturing of military trainer aircraft. Alenia Aeronavali's core business is in the overhaul, maintenance and modification of military and civilian aircraft. Through its joint ventures, ATR and Superjet International, Alenia Aeronautica is the world leader in the regional turboprop and jet market.
Our Areas of Business
Today, Alenia North America employs a headquarters workforce and a C-27J avionics engineering team in Smyrna, Georgia, as well as engineering teams at its other locations for a total workforce of over 500, including its joint ventures.
Our Heritage
Alenia Aeronautica was created in 1990 by merging the Finmeccanica aerospace and defense industries, Aeritalia and Selenia. Alenia's rich heritage includes over 12,000 aircraft designed, built and maintained by its predecessor companies, the more well-known of which include Aeritalia, Fiat and Romeo. Airplane manufacturing in the Turin area began in 1910 with SIT and continued with Pomilio and Ansaldo, which built the SVA reconnaissance biplane. The industry was consolidated by Fiat after World War I. Under chief designers Celestino Rosatelli and Giuseppe Gabrielli, Fiat built some of the most iconic Italian designs including the CR.32 and CR.42 biplanes, the G.55 fighter and the G.91 family of light attack and trainer jets.
The Naples plants trace their history to Nicola Romeo. Widely remembered for his role in Alfa sports car business, Romeo founded an airplane manufacturer in Naples in 1917. The company was later absorbed by Breda. Its Ro.41 biplane was the standard Italian advanced trainer throughout World War II. After the war, Breda came under Finmeccanica as Aerfer and built the Sagitario II, the first Italian supersonic aircraft, designed by Sergio Stefanutti. In 1966, Aerfer entered the aerostructures business, producing DC-9 fuselage panels. Aerfer and Fiat merged their aircraft businesses in 1969 to create Aeritalia. This merger led to milestone programs such as the European attack aircraft Tornado, the ATR family and the AMX. Aeritalia was also a partner in the Boeing 767 since its inception and played a key role in the creation of the Italian space industry. With the consolidation and name change in 1990 to Alenia, activities expanded rapidly and the company took on significant responsibilities in Eurofighter and other advanced aircraft programs. The present Alenia Aeronautica was incorporated in 2002, when Finmeccanica spun off its divisions as independent companies.
