He has always been inspired by his “profound curiosity” and desire to “put the best theories into practice”. In high school, he was known more as a volleyball player, with a team in Italy’s third division, than as a model student. During his second year studying electronic engineering at Università Federico II in Naples, however, engineer Dario Iannucci realised what he really wanted to do, “I wanted to work in concrete applications of innovation, and, if possible, to travel the world.” Dario is now 54 years old, with two teenagers. Though born in Naples, he expresses himself through a curious combination of accents (Naples and Tuscany) – his family moved to Siena when he was a child – and he has since than travel worldwide and has achieved great things.
At Cascina Costa (Varese, Italy), he is in charge of Digital Transformation and Sustainability in Leonardo’s Helicopters business area, as the head of a team of about thirty data scientists and data analysts who, supported by the computing power of the davinci-1 supercomputer, have embraced the challenges of digitalisation to innovate and improve the efficiency of the products in terms of economics, efficiency and sustainability. Dario came to Cascina Costa in 1997. Here, he broadened his horizons year after year, initially working on avionic systems for the AW101, then serving as head of the avionic design of some of Italy’s top civil and military helicopters: the AW139, AW149, AW169 and AW189. “That was an exciting time, involving several trips to the United States and travelling around the world.” Particularly interesting challenges that Dario recalls include the birth of the “AW189-169-139 Avionic Family”, “With my 25-person team, we managed the entire process, from design to certification. I now realise what an important role we played in this project of such great strategic importance: developing the skills for producing avionics in-house, with Leonardo’s integrated components.”
Maybe this is why, out of all the acknowledgements he has received, the one dearest to him is the 2011 National Innovation Award for conceiving and designing the first touchscreen display capable of controlling all the systems on board the AW169 helicopter. Since 2016, he has been in charge of 80 people, coordinating a larger area in the helicopters sector, the Airframe System Department. The latest new challenge is digital and “is yet to be won,” Dario admits, “but we’re making good progress: the Helicopters business area has processed about 150 terabytes of data on the davinci-1 (representing 30% of the supercomputer’s entire capacity), the majority of which concerns recording the parameters on 2.3 million flight hours from about 1,400 helicopters. The team has also created dozens of applications (tools based on artificial intelligence, webapps, dashboards, etc.) for digital services based on flight data, and developed and integrated neural networks supporting engineering simulations that could be reused throughout the company. We have the know-how to expand on these services and improve the efficiency of the helicopter logistics organisation and maintenance using models such as digital twins. In this way, we also respond to the ineluctable demands of sustainability.”
Dario’s 27 years with Leonardo have allowed him “to satisfy an innate curiosity and continue to address new challenges.” What “our company offers young people today is an opportunity to work in a technologically advanced setting and become a driving force for change,” he continues. An environment in which different experiences and skills come together to embrace the challenges of the future. “My team of data analysts and data scientists includes not only engineers, but also mathematics and physics, most of them women.” And if this team is driven by the same curiosity that has inspired Dario ever since his university days, “they are certainly in the right place.”