News

Since October 2019, the Modane-Avrieux wind tunnels, one of ONERA's crown jewels, have a new director. Known and recognised throughout Europe, and indeed internationally, they have been the testing ground for some of the aeronautical industry's most celebrated creations, with the precision of these installations and the very high level of technical expertise of their personnel allowing concepts to be tested under optimal conditions.

Aerospace research center ONERA joins the ArianeWorks acceleration and innovation platform. ArianeWorks was set up in February 2019 by the French space agency CNES and ArianeGroup in order to boost innovation for the development of future European launchers

On 17 June 2019, during the 53rd Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, echoing the bilateral friendship treaty on cooperation and integration signed between Germany and France in January 2019, Bruno Sainjon, CEO of ONERA, signed together with DLR an agreement on their collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Over time, this cooperation could be used as a basis to establish a ‘virtual’ Franco-German AI research centre for the European aerospace sector.

On June 18th, 2019 during the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, an agreement for trilateral cooperation on rotorcraft between ONERA, JAXA and DLR was signed.

In response to increasing air traffic and to meet the standards imposed by Europe, aircraft manufacturers must innovate to reduce fuel consumption. ONERA, whose role is to push the envelope of knowledge in support of manufacturers, is studying one of the most promising lines of research: distributed electric propulsion.

Developed by ONERA in the 2000s, the GRAVES system makes it possible to track and catalogue more than 3000 space objects in low orbit on a daily basis.

LEMON will provide a new versatile Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) sensor concept for greenhouse gases and water vapour measurements from space.

Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), a major player in the satellite, space exploration and orbital infrastructure market, and ONERA (Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales), the French national aerospace research center, have signed an agreement to cooperate on space activities.

For 25 years ONERA has been working on the issue of aerial robotics! Its experience provides it with expertise in most of the important scientific topics related to drones. It benefits from multi-disciplinary simulation capabilities and significant experimental resources. From 10 to 12 October, it will participate in the UAV SHOW, the first European professional drone show, which will be opened by ONERA's President Bruno Sainjon in person.