In this appointment we meet Aurora Cipolla, Head of Airlifters and Specialist Version GBTS and Simulation Technologies, who guides us around the Leonardo Aircraft plants of Corso Francia and Caselle Sud in Turin.

With Aurora we enter the PC²-Lab, a “laboratory” in which new operational and mission scenarios are designed and tested. This is a special simulation environment which is markedly different to more common tactical scenario simulators, used to support development in the preliminary stages of a new aircraft . Inside the lab is a Powered mock-up simulator, an engineering simulator that allows the pilot to actively interact with the virtual replica. Thanks to Digital Twin technology, i.e. the creation of a 'digital twin' of the aircraft system to be implemented or developed, new functions can now infact be experimented, verified and tested by simulating them.

Aurora then takes us to the Caselle Sud airfield, to a C-27 J aircraft, the 'source' of the input data for the creation of the aircraft's simulator, where she recounts how many skilled professionals at Leonardo  - aerospace, electronic, mechanical, computer, telecommunications and management engineers - contribute daily to the design of aircrafts, now used in the most complex operational scenarios, ranging from defence and surveillance, to training, tactical transport, and humanitarian support.

Follow all the next stages of Mission Future, a real journey to discover the most innovative professions and the different contexts of the Leonardo Group.