History of the company

2002

  • Creation of ACE

    The Prost Grand Prix Formula 1 racing team closed down for good in 2002. This was the start of a new era for the Magny Cours wind tunnel, which became the property of the newly formed company: Aero Concept Engineering.

  • Diversification

    Initially highly involved with the motor sports sector (F1, Proto Le Mans, WTCC, WRC, F3, one-design racing, etc.), ACE very quickly diversified its operations to offer wind-tunnel test and flow simulation services to all types of sectors of activity.

2008 - 2011

  • OpenFOAM

    Since 2008, ACE has used the OpenFOAM open-source software solution to perform its CFD studies.

  • 1st training course

    In 2011, ACE gave its first training course in the use of OpenFOAM. As if to bear witness to the quality of this training, just a few years later the very first student, Yann Recoquillon, returned to the ACE team to take charge of OpenFOAM training!

2019

  • Change of management

    In 2019, Alexis Lapouille (one of our founders) took over the management of ACE and introduced a new strategy, which was rolled out during the succeeding years.

2020 - 2022

  • Works

    In 2020, an extensive battery of works was undertaken in the wind tunnel to renovate the test section, modernise the wind tunnel’s control and data capture capabilities and redesign the fixed-surface measurement platform in order to boost its performance.

  • Aeroptimum

    In 2021, the work on the wind tunnel was completed and ACE created AerOptimum, its dedicated sports-oriented brand which has made access to the wind tunnel possible for all athletes.

  • ACE of Aircraft

    2022 is the year of the launch of the first software solution developed by ACE: ACE of Aircraft. Its aim is to allow small to mid-sized companies in the general aviation sector to benefit from the power of aerodynamic simulations at an affordable price.