Académie de l'air et de l'espace

The Académie de l'air et de l'espace (AAE) is the French national Air and Space Academy. Established in 1983 in Toulouse on the initiative of André Turcat, the aims of the academy are the following: "To encourage the development of high quality scientific, technical, cultural and human actions in the realms of Air and Space, promote knowledge in these areas and constitute a focal point for activities". Its members, who come from all walks of aerospace life : pilots,astronauts, scientists, engineers, doctors, manufacturers,economists, lawyers, artists ... all work together to achieve these essential goals.

Its President is Gerard Brachet.

The idea of an air academy dates to 1954. Colonel Edmond Petit, then Head of Information of the Air Force service and literary editor of the French Air Force magazine, published numerous articles campaigning in favor of such an institution since the year 1954. He saw it mainly as an academy for French language texts on aeronautics, where the French Academy was "completely incompetent" and as the place to be able to develop History of aviation.

This project could not be completed until 1983, in a broader form. It is the former chief test pilot of the Concorde, André Turcat, who got the National Academy of Air and Space out of limbo as much through his reputation within French aeronautics as well as with the municipal authorities of Toulouse. The material support of La Ville Rose allowed the installation of the Academy on the site of the former Jolimont observatory and, for the hundredth anniversary of the first human flight, the thirty five founding members gathered on November 21, 1983 in a plenary assembly.

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