IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - January 2023 - 77

objective of reporting the resulting interview in the IEEE
Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine [8]. Thus, on
June 30, 2015 Alfonso Farina and Livio Spinelli visited
Princess Elettra at her home, where they enjoyed a fascinating
discussion and were able to deepen their understanding
of her famous father. In particular, they were
able to touch upon the question that all engineers want to
know, " What is the magic ingredient that gives rise to profound
breakthroughs? "
They also began to understand the background and
motivation behind Marconi's statement:
I have to be quick; I have to achieve what I have in
my mind; it is too importantfor those who sail, those
whoflybyplane,for thosewho canberescued.
And, the circumstances that gave rise to:
Ifyou hear the signal, fire a shot, so I have the
certainty that the signal has arrived,
where while proving that microwaves can pass across
obstacles such as a hill, Marconi asked his brother Alfonso
to signal that he had detected the transmission by firing a gun
shot. The resulting article was promoted to the cover page
[8]. Recalling the interesting interview with the Princess in
2015, it was felt that it would be useful for the lecturers and
members ofthe Radar and Sensor Academy to receive a new
account from the Princess. First a few words on the Radar
and Sensor Academy and on the paper coauthors.
In March 2021, the Radar and Sensors Academy in the
Leonardo S.p.A. Electronics Division was established. Picking
up the thread from the former Radar School, the Academy
aims to consolidate and share within the Company the distinctive
expertise and historical heritage available. Its objective is
to maximize the technical background of the company's specialists,
widening the coverage ofthis expertise not only in the
land and naval domain, but also in avionic, radar, electro-optical,
and infrared search and track (IRST) disciplines. The
Academy consists of38 internal and 15 external lecturers providing
a service to the company, through the provision of
courses at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Antony ( " Tony " ) Styles is an Executive in Leonardo
S.p.A. in Rome and previously in the U.K. part
of the company. He has collaborated with Alfonso
Farina for 22 years, both on major programs where
Tony typically was Program Manager and Alfonso
Technical Manager and on intellectual matters over the
years. Therefore, once again Alfonso Farina, this time
with journalist Silvana Iannaccone, visited Princess
Elettraon22December2021(Figure1)tofollowon
the discussions held in 2015. The meeting, introduced
by Silvana, was recorded by a television crew. In addition,
the account of the meeting was presented with
great success at the IEEE Radar Conference [9] held
in New York City in March 2022, the first opportunity
to hold such an event after the coronavirus pandemic.
Figure 1.
Princess Elettra talking of her father's achievements with Alfonso Farina.
JANUARY 2023
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
77
IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - January 2023

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