The ceremony to celebrate one hundred years of the aeronautical engineering corps took place on Friday 22 September at the military airport of Guidonia. The event, chaired by the AM Chief of Staff, Air Squadron General Luca Goretti, saw the participation - as well as numerous military, civil and religious authorities - of a large representation of officers, in service and on leave, belonging to all the professionalisms and specialties of the corps, established by Commissioner's Decree on 31 July 1923.
After the National Anthem, the head of the aeronautical engineering corps, Gen., spoke. insp. Chief Giuseppe Lupoli, who after thanking all those present for their participation and a dutiful and deferential remembrance of all the fallen, wanted to underline the importance of this day for the aeronautical genius, “creator of numerous goals and achievements of the Air Force and ready to write new pages of successes. The technical competence of all the specialties of the force - aerospace, chemical, electronic, physical, infrastructural, armament and motorization - has always characterized the contribution to the progress of the Armed Force and the country". “Aeronautic Genius is above all the ability to look beyond the limits – added General Lupoli – to think and achieve what may seem impossible, a virtue that has often accompanied us over these hundred years. But it is time to look to the future - to the new dimensions of the suborbital, the hypersonic, to emerging technologies - new challenges whose weight we must grasp in the new fields in which we compete. Genius is above all this, the audacity to look to the future, seeking solutions to help change the course and future of aerospace".
“The history of the city, which has not yet turned 90, is entirely contained in the history of the Air Force”, declared the mayor of Guidonia Montecelio, Mauro Lombardo, in his welcoming address. “It was Guidoni himself, who forever imprinted his name in these places by sacrificing his life for the development of the aircraft, who advocated the creation of the Aeronautical Engineers. It has been a shared century, we will continue to live and grow together".
The ceremony closed with the speech of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Squadron General Luca Goretti, who wanted first of all to renew, on behalf of the entire Armed Forces, his thoughts of closeness and deep condolences to the Origliasso family for the tragic fatality that happened to little Laura, “a suffering that touches us in the depths of our soul, leaves us dismayed and necessarily requires us to reflect deeply”.
Returning to the ceremony, General Goretti highlighted the importance "of those who, with intuition and perseverance, before anyone else, understood the innovative scope of the air vehicle and the power that derived from its use in the third dimension. An impetuous, dynamic, accelerated development, a hundred-year long flight which from wood and canvas biplanes has led to today's fifth generation aircraft, awaiting the sixth, and unmanned drones. In this long journey, achieved thanks to unstoppable technological development, the precious contribution of the 'aeronautical genius', in its various professional declinations, has been fundamental. The logical and passionate contributions of each individual have made it possible to grow and develop an expressly empirical activity such as flying, making it an exact science, regulated by the laws of physics, mathematics and chemistry. It will be you – concluded the Chief of Staff – with your ideas, your intuitions, your principles, who will build and make the Air Force of tomorrow more and more efficient, to keep it a strategic resource at the service of the country, but above all to keep its founding values intact in the dynamic and continuous evolution of time, in order to continue its "flight towards the future".
Following this, the celebratory exhibition on the hundred years of aeronautical genius was inaugurated, curated by prof. eng. Antonello Pagliuca, of the University of Basilicata, and by Brig. gen. garn Mario Sciandra, head of the infrastructure service of the AM logistics command, set up inside the "New Competition Center" of the Air Force, a structure designed and built by one of the branches of the aeronautical engineering, the 2nd engineering department of the infrastructure service . The work, inaugurated and delivered today to the command of the 60th wing and to the AM selection center, was created with latest generation materials and techniques, inspired by the highest standards of energy efficiency and eco-sustainability in the broader modernization process of the infrastructure of the Armed Forces and will constitute the reference hub for the selection procedures of the Air Force personnel in the near future.
The celebratory exhibition, consisting of an exhibition itinerary of around 100 panels, traces the centenary history of the aeronautical genius, which founds its origins in the pioneering deeds and studies of Moris and Nobile, continuing with Crocco and Guidoni with their tireless engineering ability , continues with Ferri and Broglio, enhancing the aerospace vision, and tends towards the future with futuristic projects such as the GCAP (Global Combat Air Programme). One hundred years told through a chronological journey of photos, texts, instruments and devices that represent the forms and ways with which the aeronautical engineering personnel operated, with passion and ingenuity, in the first 100 years of the body, having clear within themselves its mission, that is, to act "as an essential safeguard to safeguard the efficiency and full operation of the entire Armed Force".
