______________________________________________________ iv. Acknowledgments
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This master thesis in aeronautics was performed at the site of AGUSTA in Cascina Costa.
Ing. Maurizio Simoni as well as the entire crew at AGUSTA, Prove di Volo are gratefully acknowledged for the kind reception, all the fruitful discussions and the patience every now and then that paved the way during the thesis. Acknowledgements also to Stuart Long for chairing his valuable experience regarding helicopter flight testing, and also to Gareth Roberts for all his support. To the analysts Diego Garavaglia, Maurizio Napoli, Roberto Cerruti, Marco Citterio, Davide Tartari, Anastasio Drago and also to Sandro Ardizio, Roberto Miotto, Claudio Filippini, Roberto Cavazzini, Alberto Klutzer, Nadia Kosseim, Ian Tuckwell Andrea Castelli and Renato Iulita flight test engineers for all their carefully explanation concerning the flight test procedures for the A109 and last but not least thanks to Ing. Marco Raggi and Ing. Tiziano Donizetti for all the support they gave.
Finally a special thanks to the performance office: Ing. Maurizio Simoni, Angelo Cova, Claudio Marcon, Andrea Merlotti and Nicola De Rito.