AERO 2023 has once again lived up to its claim of being the leading international trade show for General Aviation with this year's edition.
With over 670 exhibitors from 35 nations, the trade show attracted more than 27,000 visitors. Its wide range of products and services on the show floor and the static display represented an indispensable element in the current transformation of aviation towards more sustainability.
AERO show director Tobias Bretzel commented: "This year's AERO has seamlessly continued the successful pre-pandemic trade shows and new event modules have been successfully established. Over the last four days, visitors were able to gain a comprehensive overview of the diversity of General Aviation. In the diverse conference program, they were able to learn about new products and future projects and concepts, and they were able to educate themselves on safety in aviation."
In addition to the AERO Career Day, attendees were able to enjoy many AERO premieres. Gulfstream Aerospace, for example, was represented at AERO for the first time with its G500 ultra-long-range jet. French manufacturer Daher showed the latest version of its fast TBM 960 turboprop aircraft for the first time at a trade show in Europe, while Junkers Flugzeugwerke celebrated the trade show premiere of the Junkers A60, newly built as an ultralight aircraft. CEA Design's turboprop training aircraft from Austria was also on display for the first time at AERO.
Engine manufacturer BRP-Rotax from Austria presented its new four-cylinder Rotax 916 iS/C engine at AERO, which, with a mass of 85.8 kilograms and an output of 160 hp, achieves an unprecedented power-to-weight ratio in the light aircraft propulsion segment.
Continental Aerospace Technologies celebrated the milestone of ten million flight hours for its jetfuel aircraft engines and delighted its customers with the news that the TBR (time between two mandatory engine replacements) on the CD-170 jetfuel aircraft engine has been increased by 50 percent.
"We saw a great AERO with a high international participation. The unfavorable weather on Thursday and the rail services strike on Friday prevented an even better result in terms of visitor numbers," explained Stefan Reisinger, Managing Director of AERO organizer, fairnamic GmbH.
AERO offers the industry an ideal platform for informing the public about the status of efforts to achieve greater sustainability. With the e-flight-expo, which has been held since 2009, AERO set an important milestone early on in the current phase of aviation transformation and has now set a new record with 50 exhibitors. Electric flight, vertical take-off and landing air cabs or hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft, new fuels and manufacturing processes will define the future of aviation. AERO has accompanied this process as a platform from an early stage.
The extensive AERO conference program, which this year included more than 200 individual events, provided important impetus. For example, the SETOps conference brought together existing and potential operators of commercially operated single-engine turbine aircraft to encourage aviation regulators to act more pragmatically and more quickly, while the AERO Hydrogen Summit featured intensive discussions on hydrogen as an energy source for aviation.
AERO Drones covered three days as a trade show within the trade show for the first time this year and dealt exclusively with unmanned aerial vehicles that are at the service of society, be it emergency services, civil protection or security agencies.
The date for AERO 2024 has already been set: The anniversary edition – it will be the 30th AERO – will take place in Friedrichshafen from April 17 - 20, 2024. The AERO Media Day and the premiere of the AERO Media Awards will take place the day before, Tuesday, April 16, 2024.