A day full of news for Leonardo who in the morning first announced an agreement with the Milan Polytechnic on a "helicopter of the future" and then a 150 million order from Zurich Airport.
As far as the latter is concerned, the agreement concerns baggage handling systems. Leonardo, in consortium with the Austrian company motion06, will renew the plant as part of a contract worth a total of 150 million euros. “It is – explains the company led by Alessandro Profumo – one of the largest orders in recent years in Europe in the baggage handling sector”. The value of the operation for Leonardo amounts to approximately 120 million euros.
In detail, the Italian company will be responsible for the overall management of the project, for the development and integration of the system, as well as for the supply of the cross-belt sorting machines and IT systems, while motion06 will supply some important equipment.
The project, the note adds, is part of a broader program to upgrade and expand the infrastructure of the entire Zurich airport, which will involve most of the existing terminals and several new buildings currently under construction. Design activities will begin in the coming weeks, while construction is expected to start in the second half of 2019, with final delivery in 2025.
Speaking instead of the agreement with the Polytechnic, it concerns the development of new technologies for the helicopter of the future. The agreement renews the collaboration started in 2016 with the signature of Innovation Hub.
Studies will also focus on the development of technologies for the use of innovative mechanical coupling components based on new, lighter materials, which will bring advantages in terms of production costs and ease of installation. A further research project on the predictive maintenance of the state of health of helicopters will be launched by 2018.
“At Leonardo we invest in continuous and increasingly collaborative innovation – underlines Alessandro Profumo, Leonardo's CEO – to develop ever more effective and sustainable solutions for our customers and for the national system. The multi-year collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano is a concrete example of this. By putting our wealth of skills into a system with those of the academic world - adds Profumo - we can accelerate the processes of innovation and technological development, create synergy and mutual advantage to support Italy's competitiveness".
