Officine Aeronavali

  16 September 1947 to present

  Italy

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TYPE: Maintenance organization

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: Venice, Italy

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Aeritalia Aeronavali

After the was, the future of the state-owned aviation workshops at Venice Lido airfield was uncertain. They had been partially destroyed during the war, and the Italian government had a tight budget due to the country's full-swing reconstruction it was involved in at the time. Nevertheless, after months of lobbying be former workers and employees, it was finally decided to keep the workshops afloat. In 1949, Officine Aeronavali Venezia-Lido SpA was born.

In the 1950's, customers were initially scarce. The company accepted all types of jobs: the overhaul of GMC trucks, the construction of motorboats and the construction of boarding stairs for airports or car bodies for the automobile industry in Turin. Soon, it obtained maintenance contracts for the reborn Italian Air Force's DC3s, C-45s and T-6s.

In September 1965, Officine Aeronavali moved to the new Venice Tessera airport, suited for jet aircraft. There, larger hangars could accomodate DC6 aircraft. The company later merged into the Aeritalia group and then Alenia, and today constitutes one of the major European aeronautical maintenance sites, specialized in aircraft overhauls and convertions. Today, the main business of Officine Aeronavali is the conversion of old DC10, MD11 and Boeing types to cargo aircraft.

1951* to 1965

Officine Aeronavali's first contact with Commandos occured in the 1950's. The Egyptian Government was trying to sell the fleet of Commandos abandonned in 1945 at Cairo Payne Field by the USAAF to Brazilian airline VARIG, and these needed a thorough overhaul. These aircraft were refurbished and converted for civilian use. It appears that some were even converted to Super 46C standard by Officine. The following Commandos were overhauled as part of this contract:

By the 1960's, Officine Aeronavali had established a solid reputation as the most knowledgeable Commando maintenance site in Europe. Among its customers was Transair Sweden, which had all major overhauls of its 11 Commandos performed in Venice - at least until 1963 when it started developping its in-house overhaul facilities in Malmo, Sweden.

• Curtiss C-46A-35-CU Commando: N9852F (overhauled 1957)
• Curtiss C-46A-40-CU Commando: PP-VCI (overhauled 1951), PP-VCN (overhauled 1953), PP-VCJ (I) (overhauled 1952), N9887F (overhauled & converted to C-46R 1957), PP-VCJ (II) (overhauled 1953)
• Curtiss C-46A-45-CU Commando: PP-VDE (overhauled 1954), PP-VBY (overhauled & fitted with Palas jets 1952), N9889F (overhauled & converted to C-46R 1957), N9888F (overhauled & converted to C-46R 1957), N9904F (overhauled 1955), N9903F (overhauled 1955), PP-VBX (overhauled 1951), N9906F (overhauled & converted to freighter 1955), N9891F (overhauled & converted to freighter 1956), PP-VCF (overhauled & fitted with Palas jets 1953), PP-LDX (overhauled 1955), PP-VDI (overhauled 1953), N9892F (overhauled 1955), N9842F (TBC), N9905F (overhauled 1956), N9902F (overhauled & converted to freighter 1956), PP-VBZ (overhauled 1951)
• Smith CW-20T Commando: SE-CFA (overhauled & converted to Super 46C 1963), SE-CFB (overhauled), SE-CFC (overhauled 1961, repaired 1963)
• Smith Super 46C Commando: SE-CFE (overhauled 1961), SE-CFD (overhauled 1963), SE-EDS (overhauled 1962 & 1964)