Aero 2011 - a Report from DG
The AERO Exhibition 2011 is over. Here is a little summary from DG-Flugzeugbau.
First of all, we would like to thank all glider pilots and customers for the great feedback on our exhibition booth. We ourselves were very surprised how many people visited our small place. Our team consisting of 5 people had a lot of work during the whole fair.
Of course this year’s eye-catcher was our DG-1001TE, the electric sustainer version of the DG-1001 family. Now the glider will take off for its maiden flight within the next days in order to perform the first tests.
Beside the DG-1001TE we presented the power unit of the DG-1001M. It impressively shows our technology and left no doubt that this is currently the best power unit including the best engine management system available on the market.
Exceptionally, visitors could notice the two different floor colors on our booth. Besides the traditional red carpet area, showing the DG-Flugzeugbau products, we also had a grey carpet area presenting the DG-Kunststofftechnik, our sister company. In this area we showed the demonstrative wind-turbine blade with a length of 6 meters which we had developed and now produce in series for an Italian company. Beyond that, our visitors were able to see examples of our production e.g. a carbon fiber stair for ambulance jets, carbon monocoque parts for meteo-jets carrying heavy sensors and parts for the Formula-1 racing cars.
All displays impressively showed the capabilities of both companies.
But unfortunately there are negative aspects of the AERO, too.
Rapidly decreasing visitor numbers, high exhibitor fees and a bad environment for all glider manufacturers (huge model flying area, model plane dealers and caravan dealers in the same hall) make the AERO more and more uninteresting for the glider manufacturers. Additionally, the annual German Gliding Convention becomes more and more interesting due to very low cost and shows at least the same variation of suppliers, and manufacturers as the AERO.
Despite the AERO’s steadily sinking attractiveness for the soaring sport we were returning home to the factory with a positive conclusion.