Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales

Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales or Onera is the French aerospace research center. It is a public establishment with industrial and commercial operations, and carries out application-oriented research to support enhanced innovation and competitiveness in the aerospace and defense sectors.

Until 1963, the official name was “Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aéronautiques”. In January 2007 Onera was dubbed “The French Aerospace Lab” to enhance its international visibility, and also adopted a brand baseline, “Return on Innovation”.

History

Onera’s historic roots are in the Paris suburb of Meudon, south of Paris. As early as 1877, this site hosted an aeronautical research center for military aerostats (balloons): Etablissement central de l’aérostation militaire.

Onera was created in May 1946 to relaunch aeronautics research, an activity that had gone into hibernation during the Second World War and the German occupation. Its creation reflected the government’s decision to recover the large wind tunnel in Otztal, Germany, in the French administrative zone, and move it to France. Today, Onera’s extensive array of wind tunnels is one of its main assets. Onera operates a world-class fleet of wind tunnels, the largest in Europe.

Organization

The Chairman and CEO of Onera is appointed by the French Council of Ministers, acting on a proposal by the Minister of Defense. Since May 2003, Onera’s Chairman and CEO is Denis Maugars.

Onera is organized in eight geographic areas. It has about 2,000 employees, with 1,500 engineers and scientists (including 230 doctoral candidates), as well as support staff.

Three centers in the greater Paris area (Ile-de-France)
• Châtillon, current headquarters
• Meudon, historic headquarters
• Palaiseau, in the old fort buildings

Two centers in the Midi-Pyrenees region of southwest France :
• Toulouse, near the leading aeronautical engineering schools ISAE-Sup’Aéro and ENAC
• Fauga-Mauzac, south of Toulouse.

Three other centers:
• Lille, northern France (formerly the Lille fluid mechanics institute)
• Salon-de-Provence, southern France, on the site of the Ecole de l’air flying school
• Modane-Avrieux, in the Savoy region of southeast France.

Onera is organized in four scientific branches: Fluid Mechanics and Energetics; Materials and Structures ; Physics ; and Information Processing and Systems.

Missions

Unlike NASA in the United States, Onera is not an agency for space science and exploration. However, Onera carries out a wide range of research for space agencies, both CNES in France and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as for the French defense procurement agency, DGA (Délégation générale pour l’armement). Onera also independently conducts its own long-term research to anticipate future technology needs. It focuses on scientific research, for example in aerodynamics for concreteapplications on aircraft, the design of launchers and new defense technologies, such as drones (unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)).

Onera also uses its research and innovation capabilities to support both French and European industry. Onera’s customer-partners include EADS (Airbus, Eurocopter), Safran (Snecma, Turbomeca, Sagem), Dassault Aviation, Thales and other major industry players. Innovative small businesses are also encouraged to call on the expertise of Onera’s scientists and engineers, and to take advantage of technology transfer opportunities.

Onera has contributed to a number of landmark aerospace and defense programs in recent decades, including Airbus, Ariane, Rafale, Falcon, Mirage and Concorde.

Anecdotes

•The company Tefal was created by two Onera engineers, the inventors of the “non-stick pan”. These products were produced and sold by Tefal S.A. , which was subsequently acquired by SEB
•The S1MA wind tunnel at Modane-Avrieux, developing 88 MW of total power, is the world’s largest sonic wind tunnel(tests at Mach 0.5 to Mach 1).

Websites for Onera facilities

•ONERA Meudon – Châtillon – Palaiseau
•ONERA Lille
•ONERA Salon de Provence
•ONERA Fauga-Mauzac (wind tunnels)
•ONERA Toulouse
•ONERA Modane (wind tunnels)

Related sites

•Délégation générale pour l'armement (DGA, the French defense procurement agency)
•European Space Agency (ESA)
•Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES, the French space agency)

Sources

•Corporate brochure
•Onera website

Organization of public research in France

Political authorities
Ministry of Higher Education and Research
High Council of Science and Technology

Finance and control entities Research and higher education evaluation agency
National Research Agency
Oséo

Operational structures
•Higher education establishments and public research entities Public science and technology establishments (EPST) (CNRS, INRA, INSERM, etc.)
•Public industrial and commercial establishments (EPIC, (CNES, CEA, IFREMER, etc.)
•Public scientific, cultural and professional establishments (EPSCP) (ÉNS, Universities, French schools, Major establishments)
•Other leading schools

Competitiveness clusters

Other
•Science and technology research institute
•Scientific, technical and industrial cultural center
•Carnot label
•Research and higher education clusters
•Thematic advanced research network

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