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19 and it developed into the Mirach 40.” During this period, Leonardo also bought a small company that was building mini-UAVs and had developed one of the first ‘tiny’ autopilots, such as the Exodus, which is deployed on the 18 kg Crex UAS in service with the Italian Army and is certified to the DO- 178B standard. Scoping out the UAVs’ capabilities and commercial potential also became part of Maccapani’s job. “I witnessed the growth of the mini-UAV world, from which the current commercial offering of quadcopters, hexacopters and other multi-copters emerged,” he says. In developing the civilian market for these vehicles, a key part of his job was to talk to people in the industries that might need the kind of services small drones could provide – organisations responsible for inspecting power lines or pipelines, for example. Developing the Falco When Maccapani took on his current role, the Falco came into his remit once more, but in a different way. “I knew the Falco from a service point of view, but now I have been able to propose some innovations and contribute to its development roadmap,” he says. Leonardo is now operating the latest Falco EVO variant on a trial basis with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (formerly known as Frontex), flying from the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean on patrol under the auspices of the Italian civil aviation authority, ENAC. “The very first contact with ENAC to obtain the permit to fly, and all the safety assessment, was part of my remit.” Leonardo has incorporated many other companies over the years through mergers and acquisitions, and while that makes it a complex organisation it also means a wide range of knowledge and expertise is available in-house to help develop sophisticated technologies. “There are teams that work together to achieve the goal of flying and operating this complex hardware,” he says. Translating for engineers Despite his responsibilities, Maccapani does not have anyone directly reporting to him. That leaves him free to oversee all UAS r&d in his division and line of business, to drive, check and correct specifications and to keep an eye on the future. “I figure out what customers might need in five, 10 years’ time,” he says. “I talk to them to understand their needs, then I translate that for our engineers. “They understand numbers, but sometimes they don’t understand the many other ‘soft’ issues that go with that, things they need to do to satisfy the customer.” Rather than emphasising the more technical performance aspects of a particular sensor, such as a radar for example, he says it is better to focus on a customer’s operational requirements, such as the need to detect a small boat at a range of at least 40 nautical miles. “Then we can tell them, ‘OK, with this radar you can do that.’ That’s my job in understanding and driving the development.” Asked about his philosophy of engineering, he says, “My keyword is safety. That is paramount in my engineering understanding. “Then it is trying to simplify things. Engineers tend to present numbers and pictures that are very clear and understandable to themselves, but perhaps a pilot needs something else. “I am dealing with UAV operators from the armed forces and other backgrounds, and they really appreciate things that are simple to operate, despite the very complex technology that lies behind unmanned systems.” Andrea Maccapani | In conversation Unmanned Systems Technology | April/May 2019 Getting vehicles such as Falco EVO into service involves translating between the languages and cultures of engineers and customers – a ‘soft’ skill that is essential to the engineering process