Spring time in southern Germany comes just a week or two later than it does at our current base at 40 degrees N latitude in the U.S. So normally, the week of AERO Friedrichshafen trends cool, and often rainy.
Not so for 2026, and frankly we were relieved. We’d conned our friends Mike and Marsha into coming with us to the show, with promises of flowers and budding vines and flowing wines along the Bodensee…as well as a hefty dose of general aviation innovation and fun served up alongside a juicy wurst or two.
Bavaria delivered in spades, and the growth all around us in the town and countryside was echoed resonantly in the growth of the show itself. What was the biggest (and of the 6 I’ve attended, the best) AERO ever displayed the full gamut of aerial conveyances from gliders to business jets, and I really think every flying thing in between.
We had a dual mission, to assist clients with their media outreach, and to report on the latest and greatest for AvBrief.com. The twin goals kept us busily running around and capturing the whole thing in photos and prose.
The festivities began on Tuesday with a solid lineup for Media Day, during which we enjoyed presentations from GAMA’s EU office as well as a tour of just a handful of highlights in new aircraft at the show.
For AvBrief, I featured the Elixir + aircraft that had just debuted, fresh from its FAA Part 23 certification last summer. We also saw a dynamic display of the new Kaelin Aero B100C two-seat trainer during the media tour.
Press conferences and seminars gave us a chance to catch up on innovations from Beringer Aero, with its high performance wheels and brakes, and Hartzell Propeller’s carbon fiber composite prop technology. We also celebrated a lot of jet orders, emphasizing the evolving nature of the show into the business aviation realm. Topping these were several from Textron Aviation, including Luminair and Luxaviation.
AERO also made global connections possible, bringing aviation leaders and enthusiasts from around the world into one place. The focus was on the state of GA in the EU, for clear reasons: the seeds of innovation grow here, but they are not nurtured as they should be, which is why aviation manufacturers from Europe tend to build facilities in North America. I had a candid conversation with Kyle Martin, who leads GAMA’s EU office, and we went over those continuing challenges at length, along with what the association is striving to do about changing that playing field.
While not much has moved since our last visit to AERO, with the right momentum behind those initiatives, we could see progress. If it were up to the thousands plying the halls of the Messe, it would be a no brainer. We want the new, the exciting, the sustainable to give us wings.
