AERO 2023 Showcases Best of GA Industry’s Drive to Sustainability

AirVenture Oshkosh may be the world’s biggest aviation enthusiast event and fly-in but Germany’s AERO Friedrichshafen, which wrapped up on Saturday, April 22, proved last week that it is a healthy second and even first in terms of being a pure trade show for GA and the ‘light’ end of business aviation.

According to show organizer fairnamic GmbH, AERO “once again lived up to its claim of being the leading international trade show for general aviation … with over 680 exhibitors from 35 nations.” The company added that “a high percentage” of the 27,200 visitors are qualified pilots.

Klaus Wellmann, CEO Messe Friedrichshafen, said: “As home base and fairnamic shareholder, we at Messe Friedrichshafen are pleased that the 29th AERO was able to wonderfully live up to its proven strengths again after long pandemic turbulence.”

The event was held April 19-22 (with a media day on April 18) in the Messe Friedrichshafen conference center next to Friedrichshafen Airport, and adjacent to the Zeppelin airship factory. Visitors to the Zeppelin could even take rides in an airship over Lake Constance, south towards the majestic Alpine ranges of Switzerland.

Messe Friedrichshafen has eight large exhibition halls in two rows, with a static display in front – with several business jets giving the event a feel akin to a mini-EBACE, but with numerous small piston LSAs and the like inside, many now sporting electric or hybrid propulsion units.

The opening day’s kick-off session hosted by the General Aviation Aircraft Manufacturers Association (GAMA) saw industry leaders such as Nicolas Chabbert, senior v-p of French manufacturer Daher’s Aircraft Division, stressing the importance of the environmental challenge in the face of increasing noise from protest groups and action from governments shutting GA out of some large European airports, such as Schiphol. AERO panellists agreed that communicating what the industry was doing – as evidenced at the AERO show so well – was a path to a sustainable future for aviation.

Rob Scholl, president and CEO of Textron’s new eAviation division (which includes Pipistrel), said the industry needed to “come together and communicate everything that we're doing” while also highlighting the importance the industry plays in areas such as aero-medical, firefighting, cargo, disaster relief and humanitarian efforts.

The show also featured seminars on everything from hydrogen propulsion to commercial single-engine turbine operations which have still not taken off in Europe, mainly due to operators having difficulties ensuring they always have a landing site in gliding range. There was also a ‘Be a pilot’ initiative where prospective pilots could meet flight schools.

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there were 126 companies on the ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel Trail’ (30 percent up on 2022’s event)

Show director Tobias (Tobi) Bretzel noted that AERO 2023 had continued the tradition of successful pre-pandemic trade shows (although 2022’s event was almost as big), and highlighted that Gulfstream was present for the first time, bringing its Mach 0.925 G500 ultra-long-range jet to the static display. Textron Aviation also brought several jets, including an XLS Gen 2 with a sustainable, eco-friendly interior (“available now for all our aircraft,” said Textron Aviation v-p sales, EMEA, Duncan van der Velde). However, there was not even a mock-up of the in-development Denali single-engine turboprop which will for the first time see a new SET not powered by P&WC’s venerable PT-6 engine.

At the other end of the spectrum the two-seat Junkers A60 also made its AERO premiere, while Germany’s Rheinland Air Service brought along the latest TBM, the TBM 960 – appearing for the first time at a trade show in Europe at the same time as Daher announced that its Kodiak 900 had received EASA certification.

Junkers pleased vintage aircraft enthusiasts by saying it would build replicas of the iconic three-engined JU-52, powered by RED V12 diesels, and Cirrus came to the show announcing it had produced some 9,000 SR Series aircraft (an example of its popular single-engine personal jet, the SF50 Vision Jet, was prominent on the static line outside).

Engines were very much on the agenda, or rather ‘power’ as the development emphasis switches rapidly to electric motors, hybrids and hydrogen. Sustainability has become a cornerstone theme of AERO over the past few shows and there were 126 companies on the ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel Trail’ (up 30 percent from 2022’s event). A handful of micro gas turbine manufacturers were also present at AERO, such as TurboTech.

The e-flight-expo, held since 2009, took up an entire hall with a record 50 exhibitors – including eVTOL companies such as ZeroAvia, the UK company which achieved a first flight with its hydrogen-electric propulsion system in January, and H55, a spin-off of Solar Impulse which has teamed with Bristell for the first mainstream GA application of its electric propulsion and battery management technology. Its two-seat Energic trainer is due to be certified by EASA next year.

Pipistrel president and managing director Gabriel Massey says June would mark three years since the Velis Electro became the world’s first fully-certificated electric aircraft – and this remains the case. Thus, during AERO there was considerable interest in the Electro on Pipistrel’s exhibition display.

“The fleet is now some 200 airplanes in 14 countries,” Massey said, while adding that a range of new refinements are in the pipeline – new permanent 50 kW charging points, as an alternative to the 22 kW portable units; regenerative charging from the propeller (EASA certification for this is anticipated by the end of the year); a trebling of battery life (not capacity); and a battery pre-heater for cold-weather operations.

Massey also said that FAA certification still depends on a revamp of the Mosaic LSA rules but “the FAA has now set out a clear path” to allow a certification path for electric aircraft by the end of 2023. Meanwhile, Pipistrel has “about a dozen” Electros in the US fleet, on the experimental register (which ironically includes the regen-prop feature).

Summing up the strong ‘sustainable’ theme of the AERO show, Dr. Markus Fischer, divisional board member for aeronautics at Germany’s DLR aerospace research organisation, noted: “On its road to climate-compatible flying, general aviation has a special role to play. For small and regional aircraft in particular electric or hybrid-electric drives with energy carriers such as hydrogen and batteries will be developed and used comparatively quickly, and then come into wider use for the aviation of the future. AERO is aptly picking up on this trend with new formats and concepts. This results in a diverse exchange with suitable partners and contacts in the industry.”

The simulation hall included more companies venturing into VR simulators, such as Swiss manufacturer Loft Dynamics, and in another hall AERO Drones represented “a trade show within the trade show” and featured various manifestations of unmanned aerial vehicles and uses, from emergency services to security.

The next edition of AERO will be the 30th, and will take place April 17-20, 2024, with the AERO Media Day and premiere AERO Media Awards, recognizing the best articles about GA published during 2023, taking place on April 16.

For more information on the event, visit www.aero-expo.com.