Next week's Flight International goes Italian

We've been to visit some of Italy's leading aerospace companies - big and small - and our special feature on the country's aerospace industry appears in next week's Flight International. The Italians have, of course, been building aircraft since the First World War and the industry is well developed. The supply base is still heavily reliant on Alenia and other Finmeccanica companies, but that has proved no bad thing as the national champions have been successful in winning stakes in key programmes such as the Boeing 787 and Bombardier CSeries. But, perhaps surprisingly, there are a number of independent suppliers which have forged their own direct contracts with international airframers, as tier one suppliers. We also take a look at Finmeccanica's broad efforts to create a truly global business, Italy's state-funded space strategy and the impact of budget cuts on military aircraft procurement. The 16 November issue of Flight International also examines why a PR impasse led to a Rolls-Royce shares slide in the days following the Qantas Trent 900 engine failure.