Is Friedrichshafen Stealing EBACE’s Thunder?

The 30th edition of the Aero Friedrichshafen show was held at the Messe Friedrichshafen Conference and Expo Centre at Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany, April 17-20 2024. It had the feel of a show that is increasingly Europe’s leading ‘Business and General Aviation’ event rather than just the region’s number one attraction for the light and sport aviation aircraft community.

With a limited but growing line-up of business jets and turboprops on the static display, and with news that both Gulfstream and Bombardier will not exhibit at this month’s EBACE in Geneva, people are starting to wonder whether Aero is the place to be.

According to the organizers, Fairnamic, there were 680 exhibitors and more than 270 aircraft on display – ranging from drones and the smallest light aircraft and gliders, up to turboprops, various helicopters, and even long-range, large-cabin business jets such as the Gulfstream G500 and Bombardier Global 6000 (the latter belongs to the German ministry of defense’s air transport wing).

Also on display were several Textron aircraft including a Citation M2 Gen2 and CJ2 M2 light jet, a Pilatus PC-24 ‘Super Versatile Jet’ and PC-12 NGX turboprop, a HondaJet Elite II, a newly FAA-certificated Piper M700 FURY (boasting a 301 knot max cruise speed), and numerous light and GA aircraft both established and in development.

Diamond’s eDA40 was making its Aero show debut; Junkers brought its A50 Heritage for the first time; and Italy’s Tecnam – another OEM with a large display in the halls, like Diamond – showcased its upgraded twin, the P2006T, alongside its line-up of single-engine piston aircraft. German Daher dealer RAS was exhibiting a Kodiak 100 Series 3 utility aircraft and TBM 960, another single-engine turboprop but more aimed at high net-worth owner-pilots who really want to get around.

The Diamond DA-42 NG Twin Star

Keeping up with new projects in the light single-engine segment is difficult, and there seem to be even more every year at Aero Friedrichshafen. Development has in part been driven by the new 600kg MTOW limit that has spurred so much development. With seven vast halls, many full of exhibitors, it would be difficult for any visitor to get around the whole show in less than three days.

The eVTOL and ‘Urban Air Mobility’ space is a growing sector – although in future years you would expect to see a dedicated Hall with the likes of Lilium, Volocopter, eHang, ZeroAvia, Vertical Aerospace, etc present. At the moment, these projects don’t seem to have a show to gather at and so turn up ad hoc at helicopter and aerospace events, rather than Aero Friedrichshafen, so it will be interesting to see what turns up at the Farnborough Airshow in July. Reps of Lilium and others did turn up to participate in the Airfields Forum, however – see below.

France’s VoltAero thus managed to steal the limelight in the ‘future sustainable flying’ side of things by flying in its Cassio S demonstrator (a modified Cessna 337) into Friedrichshafen and holding a press conference. VoltAero CEO Jean Botti, the affable former Airbus technical director, explained how the Cassio 330 powertrain had now entered certification testing. While the Cassio S proved the hybrid concept using a hybrid unit, the Cassio 330 (an all-new design) has an integrated power module that combines three SAFRAN electric motors with a Kawasaki internal combustion engine derived from a motorcycle application.

VoltAero plans to offer this 600kW hybrid module for other applications too, such as for boats, but says it can power aircraft with up to 12 seats (it already has a Cassio 480 and 600 on the drawing board). Or, displaying close to VoltAero was Daytona Beach, Florida-based Verdego Aero, Erik Lindbergh’s company, which offers a range of hybrid powerplants too (aimed squarely at the eVTOL market).

Botti said the first Cassio 330 would start to take shape in June and certification was planned “by the end of 2025”. A new plant in southwest France is being constructed this summer, ready to start producing some of the 220 aircraft that have been ordered to date, starting in 2026.

After the Aero show the Cassio S was due to be displayed at both EBACE and the Farnborough Airshow, with a few more ‘demo’ stops and testing sorties in between events.

Several microlight aircraft manufacturers are following in the wake of Pipistrel, now owned by Textron, building new e-aircraft, or offering an electric version of an existing airframe. Hydrogen doesn’t seem to be prominent yet at the show (in terms of aircraft and exhibitors) although that could be a growing theme in 2025.

In conclusion, the industry can probably look forward to an even bigger and better Aero Friedrichshafen in April 2025 (9-12 April). This year’s show saw 31,500 visitors from 81 countries so it will be interesting to see if this can be surpassed, and how much more of EBACE’s thunder can be stolen. At Aero just over half of visitors stated that they hold a pilot’s license.

While this year’s flying at Aero was literally stolen by thunder, with rain causing much of the planned displays to be cancelled, it is to be hoped that the weather next April is more ‘regular’ and allows for a full flying demonstration programme.

Airfields Forum

Aero Friedrichshafen has many concurrent events, some in open auditoria and others in closed rooms. Last year saw a very successful Single Engine Turboprop – Instrument Meteorological Conditions (SET-IMC) one-day conference and this year there was an Airfield Forum, focused on “new airport developments and the future of regional connectivity” against a backdrop of new electric/hybrid aircraft that could ignite fast growth of point-to-point connectivity in Europe, the US and elsewhere.

Aero show director Tobias Bretzel welcomed the delegates and said that the batteries and hydrogen summit had been very successful earlier in the week. It was revealed that countries such as Germany still do not have the connectivity they had before the Covid pandemic.

Discussions centered on how airports needed to, and could, prepare for the new generation of aircraft – with renewable electricity and a capable enough power grid being the cornerstones of this new world. Storage for hydrogen has also to be considered with, again, the H2 needing to be produced sustainably. Safety will be another major consideration, said one speaker.

Set against this is competition for airfield land from developers and others – if airports can’t sustain themselves financially, or compete with other lucrative applications, there will be no connectivity. “No airfields, no air traffic,” said Airfield Forum organizer Thomas, secretary general of ERAC (the European Regions Aerodromes Community, aka IDRF).

Marlies Hak from Rotterdam – The Hague Airport (part of the Royal Schiphol Group) gave an excellent presentation explaining how the airport has devised a plan to be at the forefront of sustainable regional air transport in Europe. Rotterdam is looking to be, “Energy positive and zero emissions by 2030,” she said, “With a focus also on aspects such as using reusable materials (e.g. for the runway asphalt) and using locally sourced foods in the airport restaurant.”

In addition, there are no landing fees for electric aircraft, which is starting to be utilized by the local flight training organization. Hak said that, “Hydrogen offered 80 percent replacement potential for our commercial flight movements, but we need to do a lot of work to prepare the airport. Luckily the Port of Rotterdam is in our back yard and its ambition is to be the largest import port for hydrogen. We’ll have liquid-hydrogen storage facilities ready this year, all being well.

“We’re working a lot on hydrogen – for example, we’re working with ZeroAvia to do a Rotterdam-to-Hamburg demonstration flight in 2026 [using a modified Cessna Caravan). We have a mirror relationship with Hamburg. Also, with NLR we will do a flight with a liquid-hydrogen drone, testing refueling it, as part of the EU-backed TULIPS project. We also plan to do real-life simulation of a hydrogen aircraft in an emergency evacuation.”

The Airfields Forum concluded with an OEM panel featuring representatives from a German start-up hydrogen-powered aircraft designer APUS, Lilium, and Pipistrel. The panel agreed that small aerodromes have a lot of space so can turn themselves to “making their own energy” but getting the infrastructure built is “an immense financial problem – the money is not available in the system yet.” In conclusion, it was stated that “The aviation community needs to reunite and tell the story not to ourselves but to the people that have the money.”