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10th Aerospace & Defense Meetings Torino: the edition of the decennial

From 2 to 4 December 2025 the tenth edition of Aerospace & Defence Meetings Torino took place in the huge Lingotto Oval building. The biennial "business to business" event organized by BCI Aerospace exceeded the previous participation record with over 2,200 companies from 36 countries, including the largest national and international manufacturers (the "buyers"). The entire Italian supply chain of small and medium-sized companies specializing in aerospace production and the regional clusters of the specific industrial sector were present in full strength. As usual, the event was promoted by the Piedmont Region and Turin's Chamber of Commerce "(CEI - Centro Estero per l'Internazionalizzazione" (Foreign Centre for Internationalization) coordinated by BCI Aerospace. A total of more than 9,000 business meetings took place

Among the exhibited items, Avio Aero displayed the mock-up of their new General Electric 1300-CS1A Catalyst turbine engine, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration on February 27, 2025, after more than 8,000 hours of tests. This is a product of the European branches of General Electric, the Brindisi and Pomigliano d'Arco plants for manufacture and Avio Aero of Rivalta (Turin) for the design and systems integration. Launch customer Textron Aviation has installed it on the new Beechcraft 220 Denali single-engine executive aircraft, clearing the Denali for a 2026 introduction after the first three aircraft had achieved over 2,700 flight hours in 1,100 flights. Also on display at the Avio Aero stand was the mock-up of the Amber hybrid engine demonstrator co-financed by the European Community as part of the Clean Aviation research project.

The Leonardo Aircraft stand sported a large model of their future sixth-generation Tempest (more truly the Tempest II) fighter which will be manufactured by a multi-national consortium formed by Italy, United Kingdom and Japan. On a big screen, an interesting Leonardo institutional video was shown, in which a Tecnam P.2006 made a surprise appearance.

The Thales Alenia Space stand featured a scale model of the Lunar Multi-purpose Habitat (MPH) in rover configuration. The module, built as part of the bilateral cooperation between the Italian Space Agency and NASA within the Artemis program, will be capable of operating in the extreme environmental conditions of the Moon.

For the first time, France's Safran participated in the Aerospace & Defence Meetings Torino after its acquisition of Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon subsidiary, in August 2025. This acquisition includes the three Collins Italian plants with 700 employees. The main one is the historic Microtecnica in Turin, specializing in the production of flight control systems. In 2023, the Italian government had unsuccessfully attempted to oppose the acquisition through the "golden share" mechanism.

The Latvian aerospace industry's stand showcased the Temeso Gasoline Raven delta-wing drone, used as a hostile target during exercises but adaptable to other roles. The Electro Raven version weighs only 14 kilograms. Given the threatening situation on its eastern border, the Baltic country is investing heavily in the development of this type of weapon.

Twenty-four press conferences and panel discussions were held during the three-day event. The opening institutional conference was attended by Stépane Castet (CEO of Advanced Business Events BCI Aerospace), Massimiliano Cipolletta (President of the Turin Chamber of Commerce), Andrea Tronzano (Regional Councillor for Productive Activities Development), and Dario Perrone (President of Ceipiemonte). The aerospace industry's significant presence in Piedmont was emphasized, although it will not be able to fully absorb the region's excess automotive production.

The smaller sector companies were keen to propose a series of new products to the "buyers". For example, Ellena Spa located in Brandizzo (Turin), founded as a small artisan workshop in 1944 during World War II, is now a medium-sized company specializing in precision machining on chip-removing machine tools and in the industrialization, co-design, assembly, and testing of mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic units in various sectors. At the Oval, among other aeronautical products, it presented a new air intake for turbine engines. The firm has started preliminay talks with new potential customers and is now extending their certification to the demanding AS/EN 9100 level which is necessary to enter the aerospace industry.

The Tyvak International of Turin stand displayed a full-scale model of the Milani microsatellite, currently flying in deep space as part of the Hera mission to intercept the binary asteroid Didymos, the celestial body whose orbit was altered by man with the impact of the DART probe during the NASA mission in 2022.

In the picture: The large model of the sixth-generation Tempest II fighter at the Leonardo stand at the 10th Aerospace & Defense Meetings Torino. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, December 2025)