DTA - DISTRETTOTECNOLOGICO AEROSPAZIALE

DTA - DISTRETTO TECNOLOGICO AEROSPAZIALE

Antonio Zilli Project Manager at DTA

Distretto Tecnologico Aerospaziale is established in Puglia, Italy, as a consortium whose members are public and private organizations operating in the aerospace industry. Apulia is one of the leading Italian regions in aerospace industry with 80+ organizations and 7000+ employees, the most relevant business segments are the aerostructure and propulsion system and space (up- and down-stream). Since the foundation in 2009, DTA identified in the unmanned aerial systems a strategic technology domain for the development and growth of the regional aerospace system.
In 2014 the airport of Grottaglie-Taranto (ICAO: LIBG) was acknowledged with the role to support the aerospace industry and experimental flight operations were authorized. DTA promoted regional, national and European innovation projects with three-fold objectives: 1) deploying a technological test bed infrastructure, the Grottaglie Airport Test Bed, to provide UAS operators with experimentation services and increasing experimentation capacity of airport facility, 2) developing national technological capacity in the UAS, ATM, U-space, AAM, UAM domains, 3) realizing flight tests exploiting the airport and technological facility.
In 2019, DTA and Municipality of Bari signed and agreement to exploit aerospace technologies in the Bari Smart City programme. A Drone Living Lab was created to nurture a problem-centered and user-driven open innovation process, the focus being the exploitation of space and aerial Earth observation data and services to innovate territory and city management processes. The cooperation target is then widened to include Advanced Air Mobility services and the transformation of Bari into an experimental metropole for smart intermodal mobility.