I've always wanted to visit the Aero exhibition in Germany (this is the leading trade show for innovation in general aviation) and this year I was lucky enough to win some tickets from the manufacturer of my glider (A. Schleicher) - so why not to go to South Germany at least for a day? :)
Because of work it was decided to schedule the visit for Saturday (the last day of the Aero, it was from 9th April (Wednesday) until 12th April (Saturday)). It's a 5 hour trip by car from North-Italy so it was necessary to wake up early in the morning. The San Bernardino pass in Switzerland was really spectacular with snowy high mountains around the road. Finally around 12.30 the destination was reached and the fun could start!
I've always knows that it takes place in a big area with several companies participating but it was even bigger than I imagined. Of course there were a lot of visitors on Saturday but as the exhibition area was really huge it was not a problem at all, there was no queue at the entrance and it was easy to find everything inside. So let's go immediately to Hall A1 where all the glider manufacturers (Schempp-Hirth, Schleicher, LAK, Jonker Sailplanes, HpH Sailplanes, SZD, DG) are located!
Not only the manufacturers were present here, but other well-known companies also: LZ design (FES manufacturer), XC Vario, Tost, Cobra trailers, LX nav, SteFly and many more! The vintage gliders made me remember those days when I started to fly in Hungary (around 2016) because Hungarian aeroclubs have many gliders like this (for example: Cobra, Foka etc.)
Most companies tried to arrive with some brand new ideas to present here: the LAK factory showed the first plans about the LAK21, Jonker Sailplanes revealed the design of the new JS5 REY, the Schempp-Hirth company announced the return of Discus 2 into production and the DG Aviation GmbH presented the REStrofit for DG400 and DG800 gliders. Stefan Langer (the current World Champion) arrived with his dedicated variometer for the Larus sensor unit - so now anyone can have the full equipment to fly like a champion!
The polish company "Szybowcowy Zakład Doświadczalny (SZD)" came with a very nice SZD55 Nexus which has unique, elliptically-shaped wings and an electric propulsion system made by them.
It was also a great occasion to buy some clothes or funny hats for gliding - my bad luck that the clothes of A. Schleicher were only for exposition and it was not possible to buy them here (from every other manufacturer it was possible - but I have an ASW15b, so...:))
Instead of clothes I decided to take home the book of Simon Lemmerer - the Art of Gliding with some magnificent photos and stories of flying in the Alps.
AERO2025 gives the opportunity for some networking as well because that is quite rare that you can directly talk to manufacturers and other production companies and you can share ideas and get insights to production processes, costs and much more.
It is an interesting event for every aviation enthusiast because there is really EVERYTHING here: helicopters, jets, small airplanes, conferences (unluckily in German language), airshows and hundreds of companies who support the aviation industry (I have seen for example the representatives of FLARM, Funke and Becker Radios, EASA, Garmin etc.) A must to visit at least once!
