CIRA and PRORA
The life of the Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) is interwoven with that of the National Aerospace Research Program (PRORA), both created by Italy through numerous laws and decisions.
Everything began on July 20, 1979, when the Italian government created PRORA, through a vote of its Interministerial Committee on Economic Planning (CIPE). Its goal was to provide research facilities and highly qualified skills to assist Italy in improving its competitiveness in the highly strategic aerospace sector.
CIRA was instead created in July 1984 as a consortium company (SCpA), with shareholders including Italian aerospace industries and the Campania Region, through the Consortium for the development of the Caserta industrial areas.
In 1989 Law no. 184 entrusted the implementation and management of PRORA to CIRA ScpA, usually referred to in Italy and abroad simply as Italian Aerospace Research Center or CIRA.
In 1991 Law no. 46 specified the Government’s contribution to PRORA operating costs, set at 40 billion lira annually. It was also decided that any positive results be placed in reserve to be reinvested within PRORA. The Treasury-CIRA memorandums of understanding regulating the disbursement of the funds appropriated with Laws 184/89 and 46/91 were also drafted and approved in 1991.
In 2000 an interministerial decree approved the construction of “flying laboratories” (later renamed USV and FLARE), in addition to the major facilities.
Eventually an Interministerial Decree of March 24, 2005 added to the existing aeronautics and space research lines a new the helicopter program.
These laws and the related implementation decrees (D.M. 305/1998 and MIUR/MEF D.I. of 3 August 2000) make CIRA a consortium company, controlled by the Government with minority Italian aerospace industry shareholdings. The Italian Space Agency, the Campania Region and the National Research Council own 68% of the shares, with the remaining 32% held by the main Italian aerospace companies.
In financial terms the total Italian government investment in unique research facilities and skills since the creation of PRORA amounts to about one billion Euros. This valuable asset is owned by the Government and is managed and maintained by CIRA for an annual State contribution, set by the 2008 budget law at 24.2 million Euros.
More specifically, CIRA has built three unique facilities with world-class performance: the LISA impact test facilities, designed to improve airplane and helicopter crash survival; the PWT, which simulates the extreme conditions encountered by spacecraft as the re-enter the atmosphere; and the IWT, which allows the study of ice formation on aircraft surfaces in order to prevent it and improve flight safety. The uniqueness of these facilities and the knowledge accumulated operating them generate worldwide interest and requests to carry out tests at CIRA.
It should be underscored that the profits generated by CIRA, in part through the activities carried out for third parties and which in 2009 amounted to about 7 million Euros, are held and reinvested, further increasing the Government’s investment in PRORA.
