All the German local groups of EUROAVIA pride themselves on their connection on a national level. We organise events together like visits to the manufacturing plant of Airbus in Hamburg or a trip to Hannover to visit the Bundeswehr and their fleet of A400M. All these activities take place once a year in a meetup in one of the towns in which EUROAVIA is represented in. Previous instalments of this tradition were hosted by Bremen (2021), Aachen (2022), Stuttgart (2023) and now for the 4th year in a row we were able to organise such a get-together. This year in – maybe the most beautiful German city – Dresden.
A delegation from most of the German AS visited us on the weekend of the 31st of May to the 2nd of June 2024. As everyone arrived on Friday evening, we met up at a local burger restaurant and enjoyed a delicious welcome dinner together for what would be an exciting and memorable weekend. After having dinner, we ventured into Dresden’s vibrant nightlife and enjoyed a night out.
On Saturday morning we met on the campus of Dresden’s Technical University. Coincidentally, they also hosted its open days on that same weekend, and we got to take insight into a lot of interesting projects that were on display. For lunch we grabbed something quick from the university’s cafeteria as we had big plans for the afternoon. A city tour which challenged the participants to find their way through the city with nothing but a small poem for clues. We subsequently got to visit a lot of baroque buildings around Dresden and enjoyed the view on a beautiful although rainy day. We even got to take a walk in the great garden of Dresden.
After yet another quick dinner we were again off to the university as we came to the grand finale of our event. As it is tradition in those yearly get-togethers, we had tasked the other local groups in advance with a challenge that they were going to present. After a couple of years of video challenges, we were up for a change and inspired by the Airbus A350F livery design challenge, we tasked the other local groups with a livery design challenge of our own.
The Airbus A330 is a popular sight at Dresden’s Airport as it gets converted into freighters here. What better airframe than to design the livery of this model. All the attending local groups presented their design and a jury with members from every local group judged the originality, connection to their hometown as well as on the presentation. Take a look at all the designs! The winner was the team from Munich with their elegant A330 inspired by the Münchner Kindl and the black forest in Bavaria. During the presentations we were even able to host a small cultural night with everyone bringing specialities from their city.
After an eventful weekend with a lot of amazing people that took the time to visit us, we were incredibly grateful for the experiences we got during our time together. We are already looking forward to next years edition that will be hosted by the local group in Munich!
What was your favourite design?
AS Dresden