Aeritalia was created during 1969 by the merger of
Aerfer and
Fiat Aviazione's aviation businesses. In response to a
NATO-issued specification for a
V/STOL transport aircraft (
NATO Basic Military Requirement 4), Fiat's design team, led by Giuseppe Gabrielli, produced a design to meet this requirement, designated
G.222. According to Aeritalia, the G.222 designation is derived from the first letter of the aircraft's chief designer; the first '2' referring to the twin-engine arrangement, and the final '22' referring to the revised
NATO Basic Military Requirement 22 to which it had been submitted. The
Italian Air Force (AMI), who sought a replacement for the
Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, felt that the G.222 proposal had merit and placed an order for two prototypes and a ground-test airframe in 1968. It was substantially redeveloped from the NATO submission, the V/STOL lift engines were omitted and a pair of
General Electric T64 turboprop engines were adopted; subsequently, the G.222 lacked a V/STOL capability but retained considerable short take-off/landing (
STOL) performance. development aircraft exhibited at the 1977
Paris Air Show. During December 1971, the Italian Air Force held a formal evaluation of the G.222 which led to a contract for 44 aircraft being issued to Aeritalia. In December 1975, the first production aircraft conducted its first flight. Following on from its introduction by the AMI, the G.222 was procured as a tactical transport aircraft by various international customers, including
Argentina,
Nigeria,
Somalia,
Venezuela and
Thailand. In December 1978, Aeritalia elected to transfer final assembly of the G.222 from
Turin to
Naples, at which point a total of 44 firm orders had been obtained for the type and one aircraft per month was being manufactured. Manufacturing of the G.222 was broken down into various companies; construction of the fuselage was performed at Naples, the center-section of the wing was produced by
Piaggio, the wing panels were made by
Macchi, the tail surfaces were built by
SIAI-Marchetti, the engine nacelles by IAM, and the T64 engines were
license-manufactured by
Alfa Romeo and
Fiat. During early 1977, the
Italian Air Force issued a requirement for 187 new-build
strike fighters, which were to replace its existing
Aeritalia G.91 in the
close air support and
reconnaissance missions, as well as the
Lockheed RF-104G Starfighter also being used in the reconnaissance role. Rather than competing for the contract, Aeritalia and Italian aerospace company
Aermacchi agreed to produce a joint proposal for the requirement, as both firms had been considering the development of a similar class of aircraft for some years. In April 1978, work on the joint venture formally commenced. During 1980, the Brazilian government announced that they intended to participate in the program to replace the
Aermacchi MB-326. In July 1981, the Italian and Brazilian governments agreed on joint requirements, and
Embraer was invited to join the industrial partnership. This agreement served not only as the basis and origins of the
ATR company, but also as the effective launch point of what would become the fledgling firm's first aircraft, which was designated as the
ATR 42. By 1983, ATR's customer services division has been set up, readying infrastructure worldwide to provide support for ATR's upcoming aircraft to any customer regardless of location. During 1990, Aeritalia was reorganised by its corporate parent,
Finmeccanica; it merged with
Selenia to form
Alenia Aeronautica, which functioned as Finmeccanica's aerospace division. ==Aircraft==