EUROAVIA was founded in 1959. Until now we can be proud of almost 60 years. Our association has grown up from three founding societies to 42. Our community has now more than 2000 members spread all over Europe in 18 countries.
In 1956, a group of students in Aachen, Germany, observed an unstable situation of the Aerospace industry due to a lack of collaboration between this industry and bigger economic branches. After long discussions between students from Germany, France and the Netherlands, finally a solution could be achieved, this has been named “A good cooperation of aerospace and astronautic industries of different countries”. In addition, a vision of this group has been created: An association of all European Aerospace students could help to achieve this goal of a European cooperation. From that point, active correspondence with professors from Belgium, France and the Netherlands began. A sentence at the beginning of this long correspondence was: “Single European nations cannot provide resources for further development of the European Aerospace. For that reason, it is essential to meet the problems and challenges of the future with a collective cooperation of the European states on a civil, military and university basis.”
First Formation
First International Visits
At the beginning of the year 1958, Aachen could recruit fourteen active and highly motivated members. The first meeting there with students from France and the Netherlands was a big step, furthermore visits to Italy, France and the Netherlands established a lot of contacts. During one meeting, a “comité provisoire” was founded. The aim of this group was organising a congress where the statutes for the association with the name “EUROAVIA” should be shaped.
Target definition
Between the 22nd and the 28th of September 1958, representatives of Aachen, Delft, Paris and Pisa discussed the targets and the structure of EUROAVIA.
Foundation
The main result of this meeting was the call for an international constituent congress in Aachen from the 09th to the 17th of March 1959. The days between those two events were hard work for the founders of our association with challenges and hope.
It was not so easy to convince people that their support would help to build the future of the Aerospace branch.
Representatives of Aachen, Berlin, Braunschweig, Delft, ENSA and ENICA, Paris, Mailand, Pisa, Stuttgart and Turin were present at the constituent congress. All in all, there were thirty students from ten universities in four different countries. The official statutes were presented and accepted on 16th of March in 1959. Officially EUROAVIA began its work on the 1st of May in 1959.
First business year
During the first year, the international board (IB) was represented by the local group of Aachen. Jean Roeder was the first president of EUROAVIA. His dream became true when EUROAVIA was born. Establishing contacts between students and the industry and getting people, that come from different countries, to socialise were the first achievements of this board. The next step was to spread the vision of EUROAVIA to other European countries.
Adjunct Member Kourou
Adjunct Member Kourou joins. For the first time in EUROAVIA history, a group of students, geographically outside main Europe, joins the network.
55 years - Lustrum Stuttgart 2014
The Lustrum is a traditional EUROAVIA event which takes place every five years. This Lustrum that took place from the 25th to the 27th of April 2014, is the 11th Lustrum in EUROAVIA history. It shows the EUROAVIA spirit and community and delivers a clear message about our association. The official celebration included presentations from Alumni of EUROAVIA, former presidents or other prestigious people that have been part of or have collaborated with EUROAVIA.
Today
Today, our association is still guided by the same vision. Every year, members meet at International Events and as generations of EUROAVIANs come and go, the continuity of our founders' values is assured.