version française

FAI was founded on 14 October 1905 in Paris by representatives of aeronautical organisations from Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. The first 100 years of FAI will be celebrated in 2005 with events in Paris, the city that hosted FAI from its foundation until 1998, and in Lausanne, the Olympic Capital and present FAI Headquarters. The 95th FAI General Conference held last month in Dubrovnik was informed about the planned events.

Falling within the scope of new objectives set to promote FAI and air sports, the celebrations of the FAI Centenary will address not only the air sport community, those who practise air sports for competition or as a leisure activity, but also the public in general and young people in particular. Young people of today are the decision makers and “Air Sport Persons” of tomorrow; FAI needs them ! Under this motto, the Centenary will represent an excellent opportunity to show how FAI contributes to young people’s basic aeronautical education, encouraging them to discover the fascination of flight. As several important technological developments in the 20th Century originated from competitive air sports and record-breaking, the aeronautical industry will of course be an integral part of the event.

The 2005 Celebrations will be organised under four distinct headings :

Paris : As FAI was founded in Paris in 1905, the Aéro Club de France will host the official commemoration of the first 100 years of FAI during the FAI General Conference to be held in Paris in October 2005, on the precise anniversary of the foundation.

Lausanne : The Olympic Capital and present location of FAI Headquarters, will focus on air sports as they are practised at the start of the new century. With the support of the Aero Club of Switzerland, the FAI will present air sports to the public and to the international sporting community with an air display and several events disseminated throughout the city and throughout the year. A book about the history of FAI and air sports will be published in 2005.

The Year of Records : The celebration of FAI’s centenary will not be limited to the official events in Europe. FAI would like 2005 to be the Year of Records world-wide, by promoting the spirit of competition on all continents. It is intended that FAI and its Air Sports Commissions will encourage attempts on records by laying down a challenge in each discipline, and by launching new competitions.

Visual Image Project : This aims to give FAI a completely modernised corporate identity. The project, which already started a few weeks ago, will be progressively introduced from the beginning of 2004 and will be accompanied by the renewal of all promotional material, medals, diplomas and Internet pages.

Starting at the end of 2003, a new part of FAI’s Internet site will be dedicated to the Centenary, allowing everybody to keep themselves informed about the progress of the projects described above, and helping to arouse interest in taking an active part in the events.

FAI Centenary will be a unique opportunity for the public, the world of sports and industry to be associated with the strong and unified family that FAI forms, through its national Members and international Commissions, all sharing a common passion, the passion for flight.

Lausanne, 14 November 2002