Blackshape names new President and new CEO

BLACKSHAPE S.p.A. is pleased to announce that has appointed Giuseppe Mariano as new President and Niccolò Chierroni as new Chief Executive Officer effective immediately.
BLACKSHAPE S.p.A. is pleased to announce that has appointed Giuseppe Mariano as new President and Niccolò Chierroni as new Chief Executive Officer effective immediately.
Blackshape is pleased to announce WeFly as their exclusive distributor in the countries of Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH). Effective from January 1, 2023 WeFly will be providing sales and customer support throughout their territories.
“Blackshape keeps expanding its strategic international footprint,” states Angelo Petrosillo, CEO for Sales & Marketing at Blackshape. “With WeFly we have selected a professional and reliable partner for the German speaking market, and we are excited to establish a new Blackshape hub in the heart of Europe together.”
Founded in 2001, WeFly GmbH, headquartered in the Rhein-Main area, brings with them more than 20 years of experience in general aviation and supplies the DACH region with the most modern and high-end aircraft on the market. “We are more than excited to have found the right partner for one of Europe’s most important sales regions, who not only shares our values and objectives, but also represents us adequately. We are convinced that customers in this region will benefit from our new partner’s many years of experience, existing contacts and customer-oriented service,” says Blackshape Sales Director Reinhard Schwaiger. “The WeFly GmbH team with its years of experience in Aircraft Operations, Chartering and Aircraft Brokerage will represent Blackshape competently in the DACH region,” says WeFly CEO Michael Feldhorst. For more information visit www.wefly.de
GERMAN VERSION
Blackshape begrüßt WeFly als exklusiven Händler für Deutschland (D), Österreich (A) und die Schweiz (CH). Seit Beginn diesen Jahres (2023) bietet WeFly Verkaufs- und Kundendienstleistungen in der DACH-Region an.
„Blackshape baut seine strategische internationale Präsenz weiter aus“, sagt Angelo Petrosillo, CEO Sales & Marketing bei Blackshape. „Mit WeFly haben wir einen professionellen und zuverlässigen Partner für den deutschsprachigen Markt gewählt und freuen uns sehr, gemeinsam eine neue Blackshape-Basis im Herzen Europas zu etablieren. “
Die 2001 gegründete WeFly GmbH mit Sitz im Rhein-Main Gebiet bringt mehr als 20 Jahre Erfahrung in der Allgemeinen Luftfahrt mit und versorgt die DACH-Region mit den modernsten und hochwertigsten Flugzeugen auf dem Markt. „Wir freuen uns sehr, für eine der wichtigsten Vertriebsregionen Europas den richtigen Partner gefunden zu haben, der nicht nur unsere Werte und Ziele teilt, sondern uns ebenfalls adäquat repräsentieren wird. Wir sind überzeugt, dass die Kunden in dieser Region von der langjährigen Erfahrung, den bestehende Kontakten und dem kundenorientierten Service unseres neuen Partners profitieren werden“, sagt Blackshape Sales Director Reinhard Schwaiger. „Das Team der WeFly GmbH mit ihrer Jahre langen Erfahrung in Aircraft Operations, der Vercharterung und im Aircraft Brokerage wird Blackshape in der DACH Region kompetent vertreten,“ sagt WeFly Geschäftsführer Michael Feldhorst. Weitere Informationen zu WeFly gibt es hier www.wefly.de
Contacts / Kontakt:
Karin Kirchner
Marketing Manager, Blackshape
Phone: +39 335 7421427
E-Mail: karin.kirchner@blackshapeaircraft.com
Petra Feldhorst
Sales & Marketing, WeFly GmbH
Phone: +49 6181 3696670
E-Mail: pf@wefly.de
The Italian aircraft manufacturer, Blackshape, unveils its roadmap for a contemporary access to aviation, completely data-driven, focused on airmanship and incredible flying experiences.
April 27th, 2022, Friedrichshafen – Blackshape, the Italian aerospace company, part of the Angel Holding, will exhibit at “AERO Friedrichshafen 2022” following a streak of successes in delivering its industrial plan.
Blackshape will showcase the new BK160TR during the show at the company’s booth A4-105Blackshape’s vision aims to grant access to the third dimension for a larger customer base, including recreational flights for non-pilots, with an inclusive, unique and sustainable experience.
Blackshape will showcase the new BK160-TR at the company’s booth A4-105. AERO 2022 is the first opportunity for European customers to see the BK160-TR. The Bk160-TR is the first civil aircraft specifically conceived for pilot training since several decades and the first ever to fully enable a data-driven competence based training.
The Bk160-TR is a key part of Blackshape’s vision to grant access to the third dimension for a larger customer base, including recreational flights for non-pilots, with an inclusive, unique and sustainable experience.
“Aviation often suffers for being excessively conservative. The majority of training aircraft are about 50 years old, and even when there’s access to a newer platform, the training philosophy remains outdated”, says Luciano Belviso, CEO and founder of Blackshape. “In the past years we have worked hard to define a new path to introduce cadets to their careers with a broader, holistic approach. By focusing on their actual airmanship once they complete the training, rather than the number of hours they’ve flown – similar to military training organizations. After some proven experiences, including the Airline Pilot Program of Transavia Airlines, a subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, we have demonstrated that our vision is possible and by far more attractive for cadets, training organizations and operators.
We concentrated all our philosophy into the Bk160-TR to set safer, less expensive and more effective training standards for operators, and give wings to an entire new generation of pilots.”
During the exhibition Blackshape will also showcase the Blackshape Prime BS100-915 featuring the most powerful Rotax aviation engine, the 915iS (141 HP), to pursue further the “Enjoyment of flying” philosophy for recreational flights concentrating on the unparalleled controls precision, the astonishing rate of climb and overall performances of the aircraft.
Blackshape is rapidly expanding its commercial presence over the world (18 countries and counting, in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa).
Coordinated by the Italian Navy, the first Sea demonstration aimed to evaluate how manned and unmanned systems can help respond to the challenges of maritime surveillance, as well as assessing European interoperability.
Blackshape successfully completed the first phase of OCEAN2020 sea demonstration, the largest EU funded defence research project for maritime surveillance, led by Leonardo. Coordinated by the Italian Navy, the first sea demonstration took place in the Gulf of Taranto and involved different space, naval, ground assets and remotely piloted systems, together with the Maritime Operation Centers (MOC) from Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal and the EU MOC prototype installed in the European Defence Agency.
The mission was focused on two scenarios: Fast Boat Interdiction (Intercept and neutralize a fast & light weaponized boat) and Interception of a Mine Laying Threat during an Amphibious Operation. Blackshape carried out its operations using a BK-ISP, an innovative aerial platform with OPV (Optionally Piloted Vehicle) capabilities. This configuration allows to perform specific intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance manned and un-manned missions, and with the ability to transfer data in real-time. The BK-ISP integrates different payloads (EO/IR, Radar) in two role-fit wing pods.
“We’re proud for the achievement in this initiative which set, for the first time, a European-level and result-oriented defense strategy”, said Luciano Belviso, CEO of Blackshape, “In different scenarios, we demonstrated our system can substantially increase situational awareness and homeland security, with a cost-effective hassle-free value proposition, while we keep developing our technologies in the field of remotely- and autonomous-piloting, moving one further step ahead towards their commercial exploitation”
During the demo, BK-ISP (Blackshape OPV platform) has shown its capability of detection and identification of sea objectives, providing augmented situational awareness to the Italian Maritime Operations Centre (IT-MOC), headquarter of the Naval Squad Command (CINCNAV).
Throughout the operation, Blackshape has successfully demonstrated how remotely-piloted fixed wing, prop driven vehicles can support surveillance and interdiction operations at-sea, within the interoperability capabilities at a European level.
BLACKSHAPE S.P.A.
Blackshape, headquartered in Monopoli, Italy, is a company part of the Angel Group. Blackshape is a global player for high performing full composites general aviation and training aircraft, providing agile turn-key solutions to private and institutional customers. In the last five years, Blackshape has become an established player in the aviation industry by consolidating strong growth in terms of turnover, employees and markets. The company has a robust footprint in the recreational market thanks to the Blackshape Prime, an aircraft that combines unparalleled flying qualities and performances with picky attention to detail, currently operated in 18 countries.
The robust knowledge and technology within Blackshape resulted in record development time of the Blackshape BK 160 Gabriél program, a general aviation aircraft, specifically designed to answer all increasing need of training. Recent agreements for such program include partnerships with Boeing Global Services, the “Experimental Flight Department” of the Italian Air Force, airlines and large training organizations, including most recently the flight academy of Transavia, the low-cost carrier part of the Airfrance-KLM group.
The Bk-ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance) is the latest development from the company, designed specifically for tactical surveillance and patrolling.
OCEAN2020
OCEAN2020 (Open Cooperation for European mAritime awareNess), is funded by the European Union (EU Preparatory Action on Defense Research) through grant n. 801697 and implemented by the European Defence Agency (EDA). It has the main objective to demonstrate enhanced situational awareness in a maritime environment through the integration of legacy and new technologies for unmanned systems, and ISTAR payloads, by pulling together the technical specialists in the maritime domain covering the “observing, orienting, deciding and acting” operational tasks.
Coordinated by Leonardo, the team involving 42 entities is drawn from 15 countries across Europe.
Blackshape Contacts
Antonio Amendolagine
Marketing Manager
Mobile: +39 334 841 84 96
antonio.amendolagine@angelcompany.com
Ilaria Trapuzzano
Public Relations Manager
Mobile: +39 340 316 63 20
Ilaria.Trapuzzano@angelcompany.com
Agreement includes initial and recurrent training for the Transavia cadet program
Friedrichshafen, Germany – 11 April 2019 – Blackshape and Transavia have agreed on a cooperative and exclusive teaming relationship in order to apply their complimentary capabilities to make the most effective initial and recurrent training of Transavia pilots, with their respective products and knowledges. On March 28th 2019 Transavia started its own initial pilot training program. The program leverages also the partnership with Zelf Vliegen, an approved Training Organization based in Lelystad.
The Blackshape Gabriel 160 will be used during the basic flying training, the so called core phase of the Transavia MPL-course. A part of the core phase includes basic Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT). Transavia selected the Blackshape Basic Trainer and started a strategic partnership with Blackshape for it is innovative character and drive to evolve on the training system. The companies’ current agreement include also the use of eAircraft software from Boeing Global Services which supports the development of evidence based training. Companies collect and analyses training data aiming to increase the effectiveness of the initial pilot training.
ABOUT BLACKSHAPE
Blackshape, headquartered in Italy, is a company part of the Angel Group. Blackshape is globally recognized for high performances full composites light sport and general aviation aircraft and for proprietary cutting-edge training solutions aimed to enhance teaching effectiveness for both private and institutional customers. Blackshape aircraft are operated in 20 countries and counting, and the footprint includes recreational, training organization, institutional operators. Angel Group is the largest privately-owned hi-tech group in Italy, with subsidiaries in 18 countries, leads a group of pioneering companies which are global leaders and technology innovators in delivering end-to-end solutions to railway, space, aviation, motorsport and IoT sectors, with product and services in use in 62 countries worldwide.
ABOUT TRANSAVIA
Transavia, part of the AIR FRANCE KLM Group, is the leading budget airline and the second largest airline in terms of size in the Netherlands. The airline has operated scheduled and charter flights to more than 110 destinations, primarily in Europe and North Africa, for over 50 years. It is the most accessible budget airline in Europe and is leading the way in hospitality, service and digital services. Transavia offers an attractive basic ticket fare for both leisure and business travelers with additional optional (paid) products and services.
Transavia carries more than 15 million passengers a year and operates with a modern fleet. Transavia operates flights from six bases in Europe: from the Netherlands from Amsterdam, Rotterdam/The Hague and Eindhoven. From France, it flies from Paris, Nantes and Lyon.
At the Innovation Award, readers of aerokurier select the most innovative brands and aircraft in ten categories at AERO every year. On Wednesday evening, the winners were solemnly announced.
The Gabriél, General Aviation aircraft, has been awarded as the most innovative aircraft with 35% of the total preferences.
Great satisfaction was expressed by the head of the company, in particular by the CEOs and Founders Luciano Belviso and Angelo Petrosillo: “It is an honor to have our most advanced aircraft, the Gabriél, recognized this way by the greater public. We worked with dedication with all the team to develop an extremely versatile aircraft: the aim was exactly to design and manufacture the most innovative and beautiful aircraft for private pilots and also to position it as the cornerstone within civil training programs, like the one just started with Transavia.”
The Innovation Award by Aerokurier has long been a solid institution in the industry: this year, 3,640 Aerokurier readers voted for their favorite products. This is significantly more than in the previous year: in 2018, 2,778 people had participated in the readers’ poll.