AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

Historical Aircraft managed by the Leonardo Aircraft Seniores' Volunteer Branch is opened to the public

In 2018, after one year of activity of the Seniores' Volunteer Branch, the small collection of historical aircraft in Building 50 of Leonardo Aircraft at the Caselle South plant became ready to accept visits. All the exhibits have their description plates and a large scale model of a Eurofighter has been added to the collection.
In September, SAGAT, the Caselle airport managing agency, launched their "Aeroporto a Porte Aperte" (Airport Open Doors) initiative addressed towards the local population. The one day event, with an itinerary extended to some parts of the Leonardo plants including the historical aircraft in Building 50, attracted so many people that it has been prolonged for an entire week-end. On September 16 and the following Sunday the Seniores' Volunteer Branch was organised to welcome small groups of visitors every two hours throughout the two day period. The Volunteers, in line with their work experience, described the history and the technical characteristics of the exhibited items, while also answering the questions of the visitors.
On September 21 it was time to welcome a delegation from the town of General Cabrera in Argentina, twinned with San Maurizio Canavese, the town just North of the Caselle runway. The detailed and inspired description of the SVA by Luciano Bertolo, prompted the Italo-Argentinians to give an unexpected round of applause.
Before the end of the year, with only short advance notice, many other group visits to the historical aircraft were organized by entities such as Rotary Club, Ordine Ingegneri Provincia di Cuneo, Aero Club Casale Monferrato and Università degli Studi di Torino. On December 4 the employees of the Nerviano Leonardo plant; on December 8 an LGS delegation and on December 19 the students of the Camerana Technical Institute visited the site. During 2018, apart the company events, more than thousand people have admired the historical aircraft hosted in the Leonardo Caselle South plant. The demanding task strained the willingness of the Volunteers now renamed the "Friends of the Museum".

In the picture: on November 22, 2018 Commander Maurizio Cheli, Leonardo Aircraft Chief Test Pilot, poses with a group of Seniores Volunteers at the end of the ceremony for the 500.000 flight hours of Eurofighter. For the occasion a large red sticker was affixed on the fuselage of the Eurofighter prototype DA3. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, December 2018)