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After 45 years of operation, Atlantic,
the Antisom airplane,
which was in service at the 41st Frontier of the Military Air Force of Sigonella,
ended its operational life today.
After being so long protagonist of the Mediterranean operating theater, it will be replaced by Leonardo's P-72A, presented today at the Sicilian base
It often happens in the history of aviation
that an airplane identifies with an era,
almost to characterize it.
It is a common phenomenon for all aviation and it expresses a very typical attitude of this world,
which tends to "personify" those means that enable action,
achieving results, achieving goals,
in the very close relationship the crew establishes with the his own way,
feeling him part of himself and to whom he entrusts his life.
In short, the characteristics, performance, technological and cultural breakthrough that goes hand in hand with the introduction of new machines,
their use as their disposal,
have determined and determine in fact the characterization
we have just talked about
and they unambiguously convey a lifetime and aviation history after another.
This particular logic does not escape the Breguet Br 1150 Atlantic,
which today concluded its operational life at the 41st Frontier of Sigonella of the Military Air Force,
and when it came in line in 1972,
in the Cold War, he expressed a choice from many meanings,
operational, political and industrial.
It is to be said that Atlantic is not an aesthetically beautiful airplane,
it is not even fast,
it does not allow you to do "breathtaking" maneuvers,
all in all it does not even have a particularly aggressive look,
even though it is a "war" airplane at all the effects,
does not have a glimpse of the charm of a hunt.
Yet, it is a great personality aircraft
that for 45 years
has been the absolute protagonist of an operating theater,
the Mediterranean,
and has been excellent in the delicate mission of patrolling,
searching and contrasting enemy submarines,
marking an era and linking indissoluble to generations of aviators.
Absolute protagonist, therefore, with some primacy.
First airplane specifically designed for the mission type to which it would be intended,
because the Br 1150 was born as an anti-submarine airplane
and is not a transport aircraft tailored to carry out the particular activity,
as is often the case here.
It is also one of the first examples of European industrial cooperation in the defense sector.
The airplane responds to a NATO specification that,
in view of the standardization of armaments in use in the Alliance,
issued in 1958 a technical requirement for an all-weather and long-haul naval bimotor.
In 1959, Atlantic was the best of the 25 proposals advanced by European companies
and the project owner,
Louis Breguet's Société anonyme des Ateliers
was named chief executive of a group of European companies
who executed the product managed by the Secbat multinational consortium, specially set up in 1961.
Absolutely taken, the production numbers,
if we want, are modest:
87 machines to which 28 of "trance 2" were added in the 80s for the sole French requirements.
The first 40 airplanes were delivered to France and Federal Germany in 1965,
followed by another 20 to France,
nine to the Netherlands.
Italy entered last in the program with the order of 18 aircraft,
the first of which was delivered in 1972,
at the 88th Group of the 41st Frost Antisom.
British, French, German and Dutch partners
(Great Britain is part of the program since Rolls Royce is the engines supplier, but without any order),
they recognize Italian industry a 23% stake in aircraft construction.
This is, in short, the story of an airplane flying for thousands and thousands of hours on the sea,
250,000 miles ahead of those concepts
of interoperability and intergenerational integration
that are largely invoked nowadays,
often in disrepair or without conviction,
applied in everyday life for 45 years by Atlantic aircraft crews.
Numerous crew, 13 officers and non-officers from Marina and Aeronautica,
who without many preconceptions
have been able to work elbow cuttings for decades
with the sole purpose of successfully completing the mission assigned
and applying,
probably "only" with the the sensitivity of the case,
those principles of "Crew resource management"
long before they became a widespread discipline in the management of the numerous crews.
So Atlantic, called by the pilots and the specialists who used it as a "father of the family"
because he always brought home all,
even after long, complicated flights,
under difficult weather conditions,
marked his "epoch of aeronautics significantly.
Now passes the witness to a new means,
Leonardo's P-72A, of which Defense has acquired four specimens (the first one delivered last year).
The P-72A will have to meet needs
and deal with emerging emergencies
in some respects compared to those found in front of Atlantic in the early 70s.
Some are under the eyes of everyone.
The threat, we know it, has changed connotation
and even on the sea it expresses itself differently
and less clearly than in the past.
The structure of the Sicilian base of Sigonella,
from where it will continue to operate the 41st Flock with the new maritime patrols
- but also where the predators of the newly formed 61st Group also operate
- and the presence of a 37 ° Flock of Trapani hunt as the attention of military Air Force,
and Defense in general,
is high in this part of our Peninsula so stretched in the Mediterranean.
Leonardo en zee. Was daar niet een hele mooie film over gemaakt? 
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