Successful premiere of the AERO Fly-In “Future Meets History”

On 31 August and 1 September, the first AERO Fly-In took place at the Aalen-Elchingen airfield (EDPA) under the motto “Future Meets History”, which was jointly organized by fairnamic GmbH, Luftsportring Aalen e.V. and Luftraum Süd. Over 300 flight movements and around 3,500 visitors made the premiere a success.

Unique event concept

The AERO Fly-In builds on the airfield festival of the Luftsportring Aalen, which has been taking place since 1979. It combines the fascinating history of aviation with the future of aviation in one event. In addition to the latest, future-oriented aircraft such as the electric aircraft Elektra Trainer, eTaurus or the HYFLY H167 with a 30-35 kW hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system, visitors were also able to admire the history of aviation both on the ground and during the flying display.  The daily flight demonstrations covered the entire spectrum of general aviation, from parachuting, gliding and UL flights to piston aircraft flight and business aviation in the form of a Beechcraft King Air.

Organizers

Tobias Bretzel, AERO show director at fairnamic GmbH commented: “The concept of the AERO Fly-In, based on the airfield festival organized by Luftsportring Aalen, was a success. Our approach of combining multiple elements has proven to be a recipe for success. The event showed a retrospective of aviation, but also made it clear what a fascinating future aviation has. The AERO Fly-In was also a good advertisement for young talents in the industry and certainly brought the topic of electric flight closer to pilots who have not yet dealt with this important topic of the future.” 

The Flugsportring Aalen celebrated the 70th anniversary of the airfield with the airfield festival. “Although we have been holding our airfield festival for decades, the event was also new territory for us. By integrating a trade fair segment, we have further developed our event. In this respect, it was also “Future Meets History” for us,” said Dr. Helmut Albrecht, Chairman of Luftsportring Aalen e.V., who was delighted with the successful event and added: ”Of course, we were also lucky with the weather. That is the basis for a successful aviation event. It is also very important for us to maintain close contact with the population with this event.“ 

Diverse conference program

Lectures on important topics for pilots were held by Herwart Goldbach in the rooms of the Museum Luftraum Süd. He also presented the popular flight instructor and pilot training courses at the AERO in Friedrichshafen as part of the AERO General Aviation Academy. In addition, Willi Tacke's presentations about his flight as the first European pilot of the eVTOL aircraft Pivotal Helix met with a great response. The organizers counted around 3,500 visitors over the two days. “It was a complete success,” says Maximilian Achnek, responsible for events and marketing at Luftraum Süd. “The cooperation worked smoothly. The presentations were well attended and the visitors were satisfied. We are satisfied. We are looking forward to further cooperation.”