On behalf of all Airbus employees, President and Chief Executive Officer No‘l Forgeard today expressed his deepest sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of Ludwig Bölkow, former CEO of the German aerospace company Messerschmidt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), who passed away late last Friday at the age of 91.

“Ludwig Bölkow was one of the most prominent personalities in the European aerospace industry in the second half of the last century. As one of those who contributed to what eventually became the Airbus programme, we owe the existence and the success of our company and its product line also to his personal commitment and achievement. His vision and entrepreneurial spirit will be kept alive in the memories of all Airbus employees,” No‘l Forgeard said.
Ludwig Bölkow founded the German Airbus Study Office (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Airbus) in Munich shortly after the first discussions to explore the possibility of a Franco-German or even a European wide-body aircraft that had taken place at the Le Bourget airshow in 1965. Mr Bölkow later was a member of the Supervisory Board and subsequently honorary Supervisory Board member of Deutsche Airbus GmbH, the former German partner of Airbus Industrie, and now part of Airbus.
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