Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales
The Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aerospatiales ("National Office of Aerospatial Studies and Research", ONERA) is a French national research institution dedicated to the study of aerospace problems (flow mechanics, materials and structures, information processing, physics). It owns large research equipments such as wind tunnels.
It has 9 centers employing thousands of engineers, scientists and support staff.
It is involved both in advanced scientific research on topics like fluid dynamics and in very practical projects such as the support of a mini-drone design competition.
ONERA is the French equivalent of NASA's aeronautics component. Unlike NASA, however, ONERA is not the main agency for Space Science and exploration in France. The bulk of these activities are handled by CNES, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.
Links
- ONERA (http://www.onera.fr)