Aerospace
Being able to fly—this eons-old dream of humanity retains its appeal today. Responsible for realizing today’s dreams are aerospace engineers. In doing such, they encounter and overcome the bounds of the doable. Their efforts account for the great number of innovations characteristic of the aerospace sector. Many of these innovations—starting with Icarus’ flight and extending to the Ariane launchers—were created in Europe. Europe’s aerospace industry is today an engine of continent and worldwide technological development. Thanks largely to globalization, the industry is also a strong and sustained-grower—both in terms of sales and of high-qualification and highly-rewarding jobs. Many of these are with the companies forming Bavaria’s aerospace sector.
The state of Bavaria has been one of the world’s centers of aerospace innovation and production since the sector’s inceptions.
Bavaria’s aerospace sector has all of the components required to be successful:
- Major producers of aerospace systems
- A large number of suppliers of components and technical services
- Manufacturers of dedicated machines and tools
- Institutes of science and education
- Extensive and performance-conducive air travel infrastructure.
The sector’s main products are military-use aircraft, propulsion units, helicopters and the subsystems and components comprising them. Other items include the structures, propulsion systems and solar generators incorporated into satellites and space vehicles.
Including engineers, technicians and other professional staff, the sector has a workforce amounting to 28,000—one third of Germany’s total—and an annual turnover of some EUR 7 billion. Add in those working for aviation companies, and the state’s figure rises to 50,000. Companies in the Munich metropolitan area alone employ 15,000 researchers and manufacturing and distribution staff.
Many of these staff are graduates from Bavaria’s institutions of higher education, which are also key sources of the innovations employed by Bavaria’s aerospace industry. Each year, 200 aerospace engineers graduate from Munich’s Technical University, University of Applied Sciences, and University of the Federal Armed Forces. This steady supply of engineers is mission-critical to Munich’s aerospace industry, in which university graduates account for some 60% of the total workforce.
Headquartered in Bavaria are such major international companies as EADS, Eurocopter (world’s leading manufacturer of helicopters), MTU Aero Engines and RUAG; and such industry powers as IABG (provider of analysis and test services), Liebherr Aerospace, Diehl and Grob Aerospace.
Bavaria is Europe’s leading producer of military-use aircraft. Located in the vicinity of Ingolstadt, Manching is the home of the operations conducting the final assembly of Eurofighters. Such major components of the fighter planes as the structures providing mid-body support to the airplanes’ bodies are produced in Augsburg. Also manufactured in Bavaria are the NH 90 und Tiger military-use helicopters and the civilian-use EC 135. Manching is also the venue for a German-Russian partnership providing maintenance activities to a MIG 29.
Bavaria is also home to major-sized Airbus production operations. Manufactured by state companies are shells, turbines, and fuel supply, waste water disposal and in-cabin systems.
A number of major producers of components for space transport systems are headquartered in Bavaria, with these including EADS-Astrium, MT Aerospace and Kayser-Threde. Many of these components are incorporated into the ARIANE pan-European launcher—notably its solid boosters and the thrust chambers found in all of the liquid fuel engines powering Ariane 5 launchers (Aestus and Vulcain). Bavarian companies have a great trove of expertise in the development of ceramic materials, of inertial guidance systems for aircraft and of solar panels. The wish to exploit this expertise recently led EADS-Astrium to set up two centers of production—one for ARIANE and the other for solar technologies—in Bavaria.
Optimal conditions for aerospace research
A large number of renowned institutes conducting wide-ranging and specialized research: that’s the description of Bavaria’s aerospace-related R & D community. It is comprised of such major institutes as the one maintained in Oberpfaffenhofen by DLR—Germany’s Aerospace Agency. Its GSOC (German Space Operations Center) has been serving since 2008 as mission control for Columbus, the pan-European laboratory now forming part of the International Space Station (ISS). The agency will also manage the GCC (Galileo Control Center), which is now being built in Oberpfaffenhofen. Another DLR charge is located in Berchtesgaden: GATE (Galileo Test and Development Environment). It is used to conduct real conditions-tests of Galileo-derived applications.
Bavaria’s major institutes of aerospace research include the Fraunhofer ones in Munich, Erlangen and Würzburg, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, and the ESO (European Southern Observatory). The latter’s center of administrative services and of scientific operations is located in Garching. These are joined by the centers of research set up in Bavaria by such aerospace giants as GE and EADS.
A large pool of high-qualified aerospace staff
Bavaria’s educational system turns out a large number of people holding the qualifications needed by all fields of high technology. In the field of aerospace, these people are graduates from four renowned institutions: TUM (Technical University Munich), the University of Erlangen, the Neubiberg campus of the University of the Federal Armed Forces, and Munich’s University of Applied Sciences.
Since 1990, the government of Bavaria has provided EURO 180 million in funding to state institutes conducting aerospace research. Prime recipients have been projects being undertaken by research consortia and serving to foster intra-sector working relationships. In 2006, and as part of the Bavarian Alliance for Innovation’s clusters campaign, Bavaria’s economics ministry created bavAIRia e.V. This platform’s main objective is ensuring the international-level viability of the state’s aerospace sector by forging and fostering networks comprised of manufacturers and research institutes. In 2007, state aerospace companies invested funds equivalent to 19% of their total turnover in R & D. The corresponding figure for German aerospace as a whole: 15.8%.
One asset availed of by Bavaria’s aerospace companies in operating on a worldwide scale: Bavaria’s state-of-the-art aviation infrastructure. One of its hubs is Munich. This airport is one of the largest and fastest growing in Europe, and the operating capacities provided by its Terminal Two are one big reason why. The state’s other international airport is in Nuremberg. These airports are joined by regional ones in constituting optimal conditions for the transporting of airfreight and passengers.
