Survival of the fittest 90 years of Dutch aeronautics Fred Abbink

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Topic: Survival of the Fittest: 90 Years of Dutch Aeronautics - RDT&E in a Globalising Environment

Fred Abbink is the General Director of the National Aerospace Laboratory of The Netherlands (NLR). He graduated in Electrical Control Engineering from the Technical University Delft in 1968 afterwhich he served in the Royal Netherlands Navy as a project engineer on a number of avionics projects. He became head of NLR's flight testing & helicopters department in 1981 responsible for helicopter, avionics & military operations research and accident investigation. He became the Technical Director in 1988 and General Director in 2005 with a brief absence due to an appointment at the German Aerospace Centre.

Mr Abbink has served as part-time & visiting professor at many prestigious Universities across the world. He was the President of the International Council for the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) between 2006 & 2008 and currently continues a number of Officer Bearer roles on other National & International Aerospace bodies. Mr Abbink is an Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau, Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Member of the French Académie Nationale de l'Air et de l'Espace (ANAE), Member of the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation, and Honorary Member of the TU-Delft Aerospace Students Association Leonardo Da Vinci.