The Czech aviation industry has a century-long tradition. The Czech Republic remains one of only a few countries that are able to produce a complete aircraft: from the airframe through the engine to the electronics, Martin Rychlik writes for czech-research.com.

“The aviation industry is a typical exponent of the high-end Czech technology sector. On average, it generates higher value added per employee and is not easily competitively replaceable. It represents functional cooperation and success from research and development to commercialisation and marketing. The Czech aviation industry is now well known for its good cost-quality ratio, especially in small personal, sports and training planes,” Vladimír Bärtl, deputy minister of industry and trade, said in 2014.

There is interest in Czech aircraft and their components; the economic results are improving. This is evidenced also by statistics from one of the professional unions. “For the 22 firms associated in our confederation, I can say that they are succeeding. According to our statistics, this is the fifth consecutive year of growth and the aviation industry is the fastest-growing export sector in the Czech Republic. The outlook is also very good – in 2014, firms invested extensively in equipment and in research and development, as they anticipated new orders and those expectations were fulfilled,” Alice Undusová, head of the Confederation of the Czech Aviation Industry (CCAI), told Hospodářské noviny last year. A total of 6,500 qualified people work at those firms.

...Specialists from institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and universities are participating in a number of projects of the European Space Agency (ESA). A Czech space portal, which maps cooperation, is presenting several dozen academic entities: Astronomical Institute and Insitute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences, and understandably some faculties of CTU and VUT and other technical universities. The Czech Space Alliance associates technology firms that are involved in international projects. These include 5M, Iguassu Software Systems, Eggo Space, CSRC, ESC Aerospace, Sobriety and others. The interest of Czech firms in “space business” is also encouraged by the fact that in September 2012 Prague became the administrative centre of the European GNSS Agency, which is responsible for commercialisation of the Galileo navigation system.

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