Wikipedia

Gio. Ansaldo & C.

For other uses, seeAnsaldo (disambiguation).

Ansaldowas one of Italy's oldest and most important engineering companies, existing for 140 years from 1853 to 1993.

Ansaldo
IndustryEngineering
Founded1853
Defunct1993;31 years ago(1993)
Fateabsorbed byFinmeccanicain 1993 (nowLeonardo S.p.A.).
SuccessorHitachi Rail Italy(formerly AnsaldoBreda)
Ansaldo Energia
Hitachi Rail STS(formerly Ansaldo STS)
HeadquartersGenoa,Italy
ProductsTransport aircraft
Bombers
Experimental planes
Air force trainers
Seaplanes
Ship
Locomotives
Tanks
SubsidiariesAnsaldo Energia
Ansaldo STS
Fabbrica Aeroplani Ing. O. Pomilio

History

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19th century foundation

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Giovanni Ansaldo,1853

The company was founded in 1853 asGio. Ansaldo & C.S.A.S.by renowned players in theGenoesebusiness world, such asGiovanni Ansaldo,Raffaele Rubattino,Giacomo Filippo PencoandCarlo Bombrini.Until the end of the 19th century, the company focused on manufacturing and repairingrailwaycomponents, quickly becoming a 10,000-worker company with seven factories, and starting to expand into sectors such asshipbuildingand mechanical works in general.

20th century expansion and dissolution

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Launch ofItalian battleship Giulio Cesare1911Sestri Ponente,Genova
Share of the Gio. Ansaldo & C., issued in July 1918

In 1904, Ansaldo was bought byFerdinando Maria Perronewho, along with his sons Mario andPio,bound the name of the Perrone family to the history of the company. Over the next twenty years, he aimed at making Ansaldo fully independent both in theironworksandweapon-makingareas, thanks to strongvertical integration.The onset ofWorld War Iwas of obvious potential benefit to the company, though Italy was initially neutral. Ansaldo advocated for Italian entry into the war, both directly and by funding political groups that supported the war, such asBenito Mussolini's proto-Fascist movement.[1]

The efforts paid off when Italy entered the war. In 1914 the company was worth 30 millionlire,but its market value grew to 500 million in 1918. When the company issued shares in the summer of 1918 worth 400 million lire Ansaldo employed 80,000 workers, had dozens of factories and controlled companies such as A. Cerpelli & C.,Banca industriale Italiana,Cantieri Officine Savoia,Dynamit Nobel, Gio.Fossati & C.,Lloyd Italico,Nazionale di Navigazione,Pomilio,Società Idroelettrica Negri,andTransatlantica Italiana.

Following a financial crisis with its largest creditor,Banca Italiana di Sconto,and problems in reconverting factories after the end of World War I, the Perrone family abandoned the company in 1921, and theBanca d'Italialed a consortium to save it frombankruptcy.Company strategies were drastically sized down, and during the 1920s, even though electro-mechanical productions grew significantly, Ansaldo found itself in such dire difficulties that it finally entered the control of theIstituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale(IRI), under which the company found new life and growth, partly thanks to the new war effort duringfascism.The main figure in this rebirth, theengineerAgostino Rocca,reconfigured the structure and organisation of the company during his tenure aschief executive officerfrom 1935 to the end ofWorld War II.War contracts indeed led to a significant growth: Ansaldo had 22,000 employees in 1939, and 35,000 in 1943.

After the end of World War II, conversion to peacetime production again caused problems for the company. In 1948, IRI entrusted the company toFinmeccanica,which operated several reorganisation measures during the 1950s and 1960s, such as the relinquishing of all shipbuilding activities toItalcantieriofTriestein 1966. From that year, Finmeccanica further engaged Ansaldo within its activities, and in 1980 they formed Italy's largest thermo-electric group. In 1993, Ansaldo ceased to exist as an independent entity, having been completely absorbed by Finmeccanica.

Aftermath in the 21st century

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Some companies controlled byLeonardo S.p.A.[2]still bear the Ansaldo family name:

Products

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Aircraft production

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Ansaldo SVA 5
  • Ansaldo Baby(1915) single seat biplane reconnaissance floatplane, a BritishSopwith Babybuilt under licence with minor changes
  • Ansaldo A.1 Balilla(1917) Single-engine one-seat biplane fighter aircraft
  • Ansaldo SVA.1(1917) Single-engine one-seat biplane utility aircraft
    • SVA.2Production version of SVA.1
    • SVA.3Fast-climbing interceptor version of SVA.2
    • SVA.4Production version of SVA.2 equipped for reconnaissance
    • SVA.5Production version of SVA.2
    • SVA.6Prototype bomber version of SVA.2
    • SVA.8Single prototype (purpose unknown)
    • SVA.9Two-seat unarmed reconnaissance version with larger wings
    • SVA.10Armed version of SVA.9
  • Ansaldo A.120Parasol reconnaissance fighter
  • Ansaldo A.300(1919) Single-engine two-seat biplane utility aircraft. Three-seat versions were also built for reconnaissance use.
  • Ansaldo AC.1() designation for imported FrenchDewoitine D.1single-engine two-seat parasol-wing fighter
  • Ansaldo AC.2(1922) licence-built FrenchDewoitine D.1
  • Ansaldo AC.3(1924) licence-built FrenchDewoitine D.9(a development of the D.1)
  • Ansaldo AC.4(1927) AC.2 with 420 hp (313.2 kW) FIAT A.20 engine.

Ships

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See also:Category:Ships built by Gio. Ansaldo & C.

Armored vehicles

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See also:Category:Gio. Ansaldo & C. armored vehicles

Rolling stock

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Locomotives

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Denis Mack Smith. 1997.Modern Italy: A Political History.Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 284.
  2. ^"Leonardo: Filing of Articles of Association".
  3. ^Nidec ASI web site
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