Since January 2018, I have had the honor of acting as the President of the Associazione Italiana di Aeronautica and Astronautica, A.I.D.A.A. The A.I.D.A.A. is one of the oldest associations of aerospace ever: we are going to celebrate, in fact, its centennial next year 2020. The A.I.D.A.A. is the founding member of some of the most important international associations of aeronautics and astronautics such as IAF, ICAS, and CEAS. A.I.D.A.A.’s members consist of scientists and professionals as well as passionate and enthusiast non-professionals of aerospace sciences.

The association aims at disseminating and contributing to the knowledge and development of aeronautics and astronautics in Italy and overseas. It is a no-profit organization and the members act on a volunteer basis for all the A.I.D.A.A activities. More info can be read at our website www.aidaa.it.

Our jewel is Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio, AMTS, the Journal of the Associazione Italiana di Aeronautica and Astronautica. The Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Aldo Frediani, wrote more about the journal in the companion preface of this issue.

In my role as the President, it is my great privilege to have the opportunity to write the first page of Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio, for the Issue No. 1 of Volume 98, of January 2019 which is the first issue published by Springer. AMTS is one of the oldest journals in the field of aeronautics and astronautics. I am quite proud to state that there are not so many journals whose volume number is higher than 97.

I welcome all the scientists to the new format of the journal. I am sure that with the help of all of us and in particular the excellent board members, AMTS will improve its reputation internationally and will honor all those authors that have made our journal so significant in the past century.

I really trust in this collaboration between A.I.D.A.A. and Springer. We have now at our disposal a wonderful platform, easy to access by everyone and from everywhere which makes the Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio more visible to the national and international community. I am sure Aerotecnica will be confirmed soon as one of the most significant channels for the disseminating the most relevant and challenging findings in aeronautics and astronautics.


Erasmo Carrera


President of A.I.D.A.A.


Dear readers,


As underlined by the President of AIDAA Prof. Carrera, Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio (ATMS) is one of the oldest scientific journals in aerospace worldwide; founded in 1920, the journal published papers by the most eminent scientists in aerospace in Europe and worldwide since its foundation, and it has been a testimonial of the progress and innovations in aerospace sciences, systems and methods up until today. Since its inception, ATMS has been edited by an international editorial board; the papers were subject to a double peer review to maintain the quality of the publications following a century old tradition.

Starting from the present issue, No. 1, Volume 98, 2019, Aerotecnica will be published by Springer Nature; the editorial board and myself, as the Editor-in-Chief, are very proud of this collaboration: the prestige of Springer Nature, universally recognized, will allow the journal to reach all the people involved in the progress of aerospace disciplines worldwide. ATMS is, and even more so in the future, will be the journal of innovation in aerospace, the journal of researchers involved in basic scientific disciplines, in technical advancements, in the national and international research projects in aeronautics and space.

All researchers and Ph.D. students in aerospace worldwide are strongly encouraged to submit their best papers to Aerotecnica. The reviews will be conducted by a group of international experts with the maximum attention to accuracy.

I wish to thank the staff of Springer dedicated to the publication of Aerotecnica for their support, which was fundamental for allowing to publish this issue under the name of Springer.

I am grateful to all the previous colleagues who directed Aerotecnica for nearly a century, and who allowed the journal to be ever so young and ready to face the challenges of the future in aerospace.


Aldo Frediani


Editor-in-Chief of Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio.