When (Italian) dreams take flight

Five years ago, Luciano Belviso and Angelo Petrosillo wanted to build composite furniture. Now they design, build and sell small airplanes and ultralights in carbon fibre. The two partners have founded Blackshape Aircraft, an Italian civil aviation production company headquartered in Monopoli (near Bari, Italy) in the Apulian aerospace district.
In Apulia, Nichi Vendola's first government decided to change the existing youth occupational policies: instead of giving money to vocational development organizations, they gave it directly to the young people so that they could bring their ideas to life. Angelo and Luciano thus took part in the regional contest titled "Bollenti spiriti" (hot ideas), winning the contest and returning home with a 25,000 euro grant.
They decided to use carbon fibre to build aircraft. They say they got their inspiration from a certain Bepi Vidor, "a legend of Italian aviation" who lives near Treviso, where he amuses himself by designing airplanes. Angelo and Luciano then persuaded the entrepreneur Vito Pertosa, who owns a company that is a global leader in train diagnostics, to invest in Blackshape. Around the world, their product has been termed the "Ferrari of the skies", and indeed, one of the first to visit their factory was Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. But the impressive thing about the three models produced by the Monopoli facility are the numbers: "A Blackshape weighs roughly half as much as its competitors, is faster and consumes a lot less fuel", asserts Luciano, who designs them.
Angelo adds, "We now have about 70 people working for us and we have just doubled the size of our factory to four thousand square metres. The objective is to go from producing almost two to producing four planes a month. If we succeed, we will be the world's seventh largest producer." And they also dedicate a lot of attention to research. "Every six months, ten of Europe's top engineering students are invited to come work in our lab on a specific project. The best project will be put into production bearing the name of the student who created it, who will also be offered a permanent job".
The most recent objective is to build the world's most ecological airplane. Petrosillo informs us that "carbon fibre makes the difference because it is ten times stronger than steel and has the strongest molecular bond that exists in nature". A part of traditional aeronautic strategy for some ten years now, carbon fibre is the key: "The one that has invested the most in fibre," he adds, "is Boeing, whose 787 Dreamliner is composed of 67% of this material; we are number two".
The traditional technique for processing carbon fibre entails lamination with workers impregnating it with epoxy resin by hand. "A process from the Seventies," says Petrosillo, "that doesn't allow you to track quality. We work in autoclaves at 180°C and pressures of up to 2.5 bars. It's an innovative process that has never been used before in building ultralights because it costs too much and is complicated to certify". The model Prime, a sports two-seater that is also used for basic civilian or military flight training, costs more than the others but it is four times faster than its competitors at one third the weight and one third the power.
A recent addition is the Blackshape CF300 Prime for the North American market. Another, more evolved model is in the pipeline for certification in Canada and the United States.
On 20 May 2014, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi met with Vito Pertosa and his team of top managers during a visit to the Blackshape facility in Monopoli. Renzi congratulated the entire team for their outstanding achievement and for their leadership in this class of aircraft.