June 9, 2009
At the press conference of the trade show "Aerospace Testing, Design and Manufacturing", held in Munich this year for the third time, Bavarian Vice Minister of Economic Affairs, Katja Hessel, declared: "The fact that Munich was chosen as location site for this trade fair underlines once again the excellent position of the State of Bavaria within the aerospace industry".
Altogether, well over 60 000 people are employed in the field of aerospace in Bavaria. The annual volume of sales amounts to around 6.5 billion euros. However, the economic importance of the aerospace industry reaches far beyond the number of employees and sales figures. "The companies of this sector scored well as innovation and growth motors with an R&D share representing up to 19 per cent in turnover. For this reason, the aerospace sector is considered one of the strategic technologies across the world", said Ms. Hessel. The Aerospace Testing Trade Show continues to contribute to Bavaria's attractiveness as an aerospace and satellite navigation location.
"With the Clusteroffensive Allianz from Bayern innovativ, the State government supports the strategic networking within the industry and between industry and research. Thus the association bavAIRia was given the mandate to manage the twin clusters "Aerospace" and "Satellite Navigation". Under the management of Dr. Martin Haunschild, the cluster has turned out to be a competent economic partner", said Vice Minister Hessel.
In order to attractively shape the research infrastructure, Bavaria has broken new ground. Together with EADS, MTU Aerospace and Liebherr Aerospace the Ministry of Economic Affairs launched the initiative "Bauhaus Aerospace". By creating a think tank for intercompany, visionary and unconventionnal research in the aerospace domain, the aim is to produce a network of interdisciplinary research cooperations for a "Future in the aerospace".
Source: Bavarian State ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure and Transportation