On 22 and 23 April, the kick-off event for the German-French cooperation between DLR and ONERA for the joint virtual research center "AI4Aerospace Engineering" took place. The cooperation between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Office national d'études et de recherches aérospatiales (ONERA) had its beginning last year at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget. The goal is a German-French "virtual" AI research center for aerospace.

In the context of increasing interest for airships, ONERA conduct researches on one of the most sensitive and crucial issues for these vehicles: the dynamic behaviour in turbulent atmosphere and in gusts, including when flying at low altitude.

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.