Campania Aerospace Technological District – DAC S.c.a r.l. – was born on May 30th, 2012 with a definite goal: stimulate the collaboration between research centers, universities and firms in Campania region for creating concrete business opportunities and continuous occasions of growth and innovation.
Campania Aerospace District brings 174 direct and indirect partners, including 28 large Companies (e.g.: Leonardo, Magnaghi Aeronautica, Tecnam, Dema, Geven, Atitech, Telespazio, etc.), 18 Research Centres (e.g.: CIRA - Italian Aerospace Research Center, CNR - National Research Council, ENEA and 5 Campania Universities) and 128 SMEs.
In the Campania economic system, the aerospace supply chain plays a leading role representing an element of development for the region, both in terms of industrial presence and high technological content required by the productive processes.
For Campania region, DAC represents a fundamental step towards the realization and the management of an industrial network able to develop competitive solutions to be properly proposed to qualified national and international customers. As a new model of development, the challenge taken up by the DAC is linked to the consolidation and integration of the competences of all regional excellence in the aerospace industry:
Commercial Aviation, for the development of enabling methodologies and technologies for the design and construction of the new regional aircraft;
General Aviation, for the development of manufacturing and assembly techniques of light aircraft for the Business & General Aviation (B&G Aviation);
Space and Carriers, for the design and development of space platforms such as micro satellites and dual-use technologies related to carriers and systems for logistic and communications;
Maintenance and Transformation, for the development of methods of maintenance and transformation useful for the new technologies and methodologies planned within the district.
Propulsion, for the development and maintenance of systems and subsystems of engines ranging from electric and hybrid to more traditional endothermic configurations, for application to general aviation, drones, urban air mobility, regional aircrafts.
DAC has developed about 40 R&D projects since its birth for a value of 160 M€ together with various subgroups among its members.
The ability of the DAC to integrate all the regional players of the technological and productive supply chain, putting it in relation with research, is made possible also by the adoption of an innovative model of governance, able to ensure the representation required by each member and at the same time it allows to use a collaborative system of project & knowledge management on which all the partners work independently but with an integrated view.
In addition, the transversal actions implemented by DAC to focus efforts and address the regional strategy in the aerospace field, include: vocational training and high education, technology transfer and communication, duality and internationalization.
In this context, the DAC has important actions for ensuring its involvement in the most important national and international aerospace platforms, such as:
ACARE Italy;
Space Platform SPIN-it;
SPRING Italian cluster for circular bioeconomy;
EACP European Aerospace Cluster Partnership;
GACP Global Aerospace Cluster Partnership;
ENDR European Network of Defense related Regions;
EDSP European Defense Skill Partnership;
Global Spaceport Alliance.
These actions represent an instrument of development and growth, a catalyst of business opportunities and innovative projects and a further mechanism of technology transfer.
It should be noted that the DAC pursues all its objectives by adopting a meta-district vision. In fact, it is one of the founding members of the National Aerospace Technological Cluster (CTNA).
In this way, the strategic program of the DAC is part of a largest system, which involves the other Italian aerospace districts and the entire national aerospace industry, with the aim to coordinate the developments and to focus the efforts at national level.
In the Campania economic system, the aerospace industry plays a leading role, both in terms of industrial presence and high technological contents. The regional history starts since the beginning of Wright brothers first flight at the early stage of aeronautics, as well as since the birth of space era in the early ’60 of the last century. The sector counts today 13.000 direct employees rising up to 50.000 including indirect unities as well as ancillary employees, with a turnover of more than 3B€, representing a quarter of the national aerospace industry. In the Region, 12% of the whole budget is allocated to R&D activities.
Italy represents today the fourth aerospace country in Europe and the seventh in the world.