Avio company
Our history
The origin
In our country, the ambition to master spaceflight took shape in a small town near Rome—Colleferro—where ammunition and explosives had been manufactured since 1912. Two senators of the Kingdom of Italy and visionary entrepreneurs, Giovanni Bombrini and Leopoldo Parodi-Delfino, saw the opportunity to invest in diversified industrial capabilities, primarily based on chemistry. Their business venture was also a social experiment: they built a workers' village in the countryside near Rome, which later became the Municipality of Colleferro.
looking at the space
Between the two World Wars, the company focused on ammunition production. Shortly after the Second World War, the management of Bombrini Parodi-Delfino foresaw that the missile sector would gain traction and represent an opportunity for international expansion. So, in the 1950s, the company began developing increasingly sophisticated missile propulsion systems, initiating collaborations both in Europe and with the United States to contribute to the creation of the first modern-era missiles.
From the early 1960s, the expertise developed in this field enabled entry into the emerging space sector, through both early European programs and national initiatives. Italy was among the first countries in the world to build and launch an artificial satellite into space. In those same years, BPD managed to enter the development of the first European launchers as a supplier of subsystems, particularly solid-propellant stage separation motors.
from the 70s to today
The early experiences of the 1960s with Hawk missiles led to the acquisition of foundational knowledge in solid propulsion, which was later applied in the 1970s to the first sounding rockets launched from Sardinia. Their six-ton first-stage boosters were subsequently modified to become the first stage of the Alfa missile in 1976.
Thanks to this experience, it became possible in the mid-1980s to produce solid boosters for Ariane 3 and later for Ariane 4, with 7.5 and 9 tons of thrust respectively. This led to the development of the first Zefiro motors, featuring carbon casings and 16 tons of thrust.
This long journey of technical growth culminated in the development—together with French industry—of the 230-ton solid boosters for Ariane 5, and later the 140-ton carbon-cased boosters for Ariane 6 and Vega C.
THE FIRST VEGA
In the following decades, thanks to the development of projects and products within the framework of the European Space Agency, Italy succeeded—exactly 100 years after the founding of its space industry—in successfully launching Vega into space: a launch vehicle entirely designed in Italy and developed in collaboration with European partners under Italian leadership.