Three years ago, at Le Bourget, the show was used to project the image of a group that was achieving integration. Last year, at Farnborough, a clear association was made between a strong symbol and a clear offer, with these elements closely intertwined. The symbol was the new brand, common to all group companies, and the clear offer was the ability of these firms to deliver integrated security and defence systems, an expression of the combined expertise stemming from the interaction of complementary skills.
 
The 2007 Paris Air show is a further step forward along Finmeccanica's growth path. The group has decided to associate the products and systems that are at the heart of its competitiveness with the presentation of the priorities and values that guide its actions and will drive its future growth.


The stand in Paris is set up as a wheel whereby visitors can explore along the following individual spokes, proceeding ideally from the rim to the hub:
 
- Competence
- Research
- Security
- People
 
Competence is a trademark of Finmeccanica's activities as a whole. Particularly, it is competence that allows the companies of the Group operating in Defence Electronics to design and manage integrated systems and systems of systems ensuring security to people in their daily life. And it is competence that permitted Finmeccanica to partner with Thales in Space and create one of the utmost world players in such a future-oriented field.
 
The Group actively participates in the activities of 19 institutions and universities in Italy and 29 academies and Research centres worldwide. The result of these exchanges is a growth in knowledge for all those taking part in them.
 
Securing a country means to protect its borders, its critical infrastructures and the great events marking its history and to ensure an effective management of any possible crisis. Many are Finmeccanica's technologies contributing to ensure these essential objectives: from aircraft to helicopters, from sensors to radars, and to effective and safe communications for police forces.
 
Finmeccanica is present in the daily life of many People, when it controls safety in railway stations and airports, when its signalling systems allow trains to follow the right course, when it allows to sort letters in a swift and reliable way, and when it permits to quickly check the registration number of those who committed a violation or a crime.
 
Each spoke is assigned to the following capabilities:
 
- Aeronautics and Helicopters
- Space
- Homeland Security
- Through Life Cycle Support
 
Each of the these areas converges towards a visual totem (set of words and images) devoted to the group's guiding values. In the Aeronautics area there is a totem on Competence, since this is what has enabled our aircraft companies to access new markets and to establish partnerships with major industry players worldwide. In the Homeland Security area there is a totem on Security, which is made possible by the group's protection and defence systems, as electronics is their "central nervous system". The Space area has a Research totem. Space is emblematic of Research, as it represents an arena for the most advanced and futuristic ideas. Lastly, in the "Thorough Life Cycle Support" area, the focus is on People, since it is the talent of the people who work in the group that produces answers to the difficult questions posed by the other human beings at the centre of Finmeccanica's attention - the customers.
 
The notions of Competence, Security, Research and attention to People are, of course, universal. Their particular location can be attributed solely to the need to link them, visually and physically, to examples that more than anything are symbolic of their specific nature.
 
At the stand's hub, where all the "spokes" meet, there is a large column that uses the images of the new Finmeccanica advertising campaign to summarise the group's messages and the commitments it intends to pursue.
 
Finally, the Static Area allows visitors a close view of several important group products, the embodiment of the know-how that the stand as a whole aims to symbolise.