Europe has a strong and proud tradition in aerospace and astronautics, which indeed is a very important area for Europe. It represents a substantial business domain, but maybe equally important, it is also a driver for technology development and innovation that benefits the society as a whole. One of Europe’s greatest challenges is about independence, in order to keep and maintain capabilities within the complete set of technologies needed as a foundation for a sustainable aerospace industry in Europe. This is important when Europe has to look at the next generation of Air Power. It is also fundamental for Europe to be an attractive partner in international projects conducted with global collaboration.

CEAS – Council of European Aerospace Societies – is an organisation bringing European national aerospace organisations together for increased international strength. Today, CEAS comprises sixteen member organisations with roughly 35,000 individual members. CEAS hosts biennial conferences on aeronautics in Europe where CEAS 2013 in Linköping is the fourth after Venice 2011, Manchester 2009 and Berlin 2007.