Fiat Aviazione Fiat Aviazione was an Italian aircraft manufacturer , at one time part of the Fiat group , focused mainly on military aviation . After the World War I , Fiat consolidated several Italian small aircraft manufacturers , like Pomilio and Ansaldo . Most famous were Fiat biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s , Fiat CR . 32 and Fiat CR . 42 . Other notable designs were fighters CR . 20 , G . 50 , G . 55 and a bomber , the Fiat BR . 20 . In 1950s , the company designed the G . 91 light ground attack plane . In 1969 , Fiat Aviazione merged with Aerfer to create Aeritalia , which would become Alenia Aeronautica in 1990 . History . In 1908 , aeronautical production started taking its first steps in Turin , in Fiat , with the decision to design and produce an engine , the SA 8 / 75 , derived from racing cars . It was the beginning of a centennial story whose heritage is today linked directly to Avio . The first mass - produced engine produced by Fiat was the A10 , created in 1 , 070 units between 1914 and 1915 : at this point the pioneer age had come to an end and the company decided to design and construct complete aircraft . Thus in 1916 the Società Italiana Aviazione was founded , changing its name in 1918 to Fiat Aviazione . In Turin , besides aircraft engines , and always along the lines of the internal - combustion engine , Fiat diversified production with the constitution in 1909 of Fiat San Giorgio for marine diesel engines , the area from which activities in the field of industrial engines for electric power generation later ensued . In Colleferro ( Rome ) , the Bombrini Parodi - Delfino - BPD Company , established in Genoa in 1912 , started manufacturing explosives and chemical products , from which the space segment originated . In the aeronautical field , roots grew in Brindisi with the SACA Company . Gradually , many other realities began such as the CMASA di Marina Company in Pisa , founded in 1921 by German design engineer Claude Dornier , in collaboration with Rinaldo Piaggio and Attilio Odero . Finally , interactions and exchanges , accumulation of skills and experience , and multi - faceted stimuli have come from the many varied forms of international collaboration that have taken place with major companies like General Electric , Rolls - Royce , Pratt & Whitney and Eurocopter , just to mention a few of the most important names with whom current partnerships go back over half a century . From biplanes to jet aircraft . After the first pioneering design of aircraft engines at the beginning of the twentieth century , against the opinion of over - cautious directors towards new technologies and areas of activity , Giovanni Agnelli , one of Fiat ’ s founder members , and technical director Guido Fornaca , supported aeronautical production , started up on an industrial basis during the Great War to meet military orders . Therefore , the Società Italiana Aviazione ( Italian Aviation Company ) was established in 1916 , and later passed to the Aviation Section of Fiat in 1918 . The first mass - produced aeronautical engine ( over 1 , 000 units ) , the A10 , was installed on several aircraft between 1914 and 1915 such as the Farman , later produced under licence , and the three - engined Caproni bomber aircraft . At the end of the First World War , the technical and production resources accumulated during the conflict were directed at the emerging sector of the commercial aeroplane . The production of complete aircraft , already started up with the SP series , intensified under the guidance of design engineer Celestino Rosatelli who began his collaboration with Fiat in 1918 . In about fifteen years , Rosatelli contributed to the famous CR and BR fighter and bomber aircraft while , thanks to its highly technical and reliable engines , Fiat aircraft had a run of world records : power , with the A14 of 700HP produced between 1917 and 1919 ; speed , with the 300 km / h achieved by the R700 in 1921 ; speed and airworthiness , with the AS2 engine that , installed on the Idromacchi M20 , established the speed record for seaplanes and won the prestigious Schneider Cup in America in 1926 ; and speed again , with the new record attained by Francesco Agello in 1934 on an aeroplane powered by the Fiat AS6 engine of 3 , 100HP . In 1926 , with the acquisition of the Ansaldo factory in Corso Francia , Turin , Fiat Aviazione merged with the Società Aeronautica d ’ Italia ( Italian Aeronautical Company ) . In 1931 , Vittorio Valletta , the then General Manager of Fiat , employed a young design engineer Giuseppe Gabrielli to head the Aviation Technical Office . In 1934 , the acquisition of the CMASA Company marked the entry of Fiat into the production of seaplanes . A great many of the targets achieved in the subsequent thirty - year period were linked to the genius of Gabrielli who quickly made a name for himself , beginning with the G2 , a commercial plane of six seats besides the pilot , destined to be used by the Società Aviolinee Italiane ( Italian Airline Company ) , with Fiat as majority shareholder , which boasted original innovations and developments under six patents . While investments in the passenger and cargo transport sector continued with opening up of European routes of civil airlines , which used G18 and APR2 twin - engine monoplanes , in 1937 , in the CMASA factory in Marina di Pisa , the G50 was produced , the first single - seater fighter plane employed by the Italian Air Force . In 1949 , having overcome the uncertainties and difficulties of the Second World War , the Fiat aeronautical activities were reorganised in the Aviation area . The delay in the production typologies accumulated in the years of autarchy were soon overcome thanks to the technical competences of Gabrielli and the new climate of Atlantic and inter - European collaboration . Already in 1951 , Gabrielli had designed the G80 , the first Italian jet aircraft powered by a De Havilland “ Goblin ” turbojet engine . In the early 1950s , Fiat Aviazione started a production revival by means of American orders and , in particular , was the only company in Europe to obtain the licence from NATO for the construction of the F86 K . It entered into an agreement with General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the production of jet engine components . The experience acquired through this work allowed the Company to participate in the international call for tenders by NATO in 1954 for a light tactical fighter aircraft . The following year , the Italian project , named G91 , obtained the order for three prototypes , in the same way as the English and French competitors , and then emerged as winner , with the final decision taken in 1958 . The G91 was affirmed as NATO ’ s standard light fighter aircraft in the European zone , becoming the most important Italian post - war aircraft with over 700 planes produced , for the most part exported . In 1961 , Fiat Aviazione took on the role of Italian prime contractor for the NATO F104 G aircraft and , under these circumstances , established collaboration relations with the Alfa Romeo Avio Company in Pomigliano d ’ Arco , near Naples , directly controlled by the Finmeccanica State Company . From the middle of the 1950s , under the guidance of the engineer Stefanutti , Alfa Romeo Avio had also intensified collaboration relations with Rolls - Royce and General Electric in aeronautical engines . In the second half of the 1960s , following consistent orders of the DC - 9 for the national flagship airline Alitalia , controlled by the IRI State Company , the collaboration began between McDonnell Douglas and Aerfer , an aeronautical and railway Construction Company established by Finmeccanica in 1950 on part of the Aeronautical Centre in Pomigliano d ’ Arco . In 1969 , Fiat and Finmeccanica set up the Aeritalia Company , who Fiat entrusted with the aircraft activities . Subsequently , through different international collaborations , Pomigliano d ’ Arco specialised in the development and production of components for the “ hot parts ” of jet engines and the overhaul of civil aeroengines . Instead , Fiat concentrated on aeroengines and transmissions for helicopters , put together in Fiat Aviazione in 1976 , with 3 , 700 employees , and production centres in Turin and Brindisi . This choice was consistent with the transformation of the aeronautical industry ’ s worldwide scenario , characterised by the formation of just a few large groups and growing specialisation and internationalisation . A twofold necessity ensued , on the one side , to put into the field collaborations crucial to bringing together the financial resources and technological competences required by an increasingly sophisticated production in the area of materials , electronics and safety systems and , on the other , to identify areas of specialisation in which to play a leading role at a worldwide level . The programme of refinement and improvement of quality control was a strategic factor that gave rise to Fiat Aviazione ’ s success during those years . With the change of the company name to Fiat Avio in 1989 , the Turin Company collaborated on the design and manufacture of propulsion systems for the Tornado and Harrier Jump Jet ( vertical / short take - off and landing ) in the military sector , and Boeing and Airbus in the commercial one , just to mention the most important cases in both military and commercial fields . In 1997 , the acquisition of the controlling stake in Alfa Romeo Avio from Finmeccanica was key to a national strategic project aimed at reducing the excessive fragmentation of the Italian companies and at increasing competitiveness through more systematic synergies .