Aerospace Test & Development Show · 2026

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• The Aerospace Test & Development Show is the international trade show dedicated to tools, technologies and services for testing, validation and development in aerospace, space, drones and air defence systems. It is held at MEETT Toulouse, hall 7, in Aussonne.
• Organiser: MA Exhibitions, the events division of the Mark Allen Group, which also publishes the magazine Aerospace Testing International.
• Next edition: Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September 2026, 10am to 5pm, MEETT hall 7. The trade show has been held in Toulouse since it was launched in 2023.
• Over 150 exhibitors expected and more than 70 speakers announced for 2026. The official directory of confirmed exhibitors listed 148 companies at the end of August 2026.
• Three free conference forums in 2026: the Testing Forum, the Future Propulsion Forum and the Defence Testing Forum, the latter being new for the 2026 edition.
• Visitor entry is free on registration and gives access to all the forums, with no additional sign-up required.
• The trade show plays on its Toulouse roots: Airbus, Airbus Structures Test, Safran Data Systems, DGA Techniques Aérospatiales, Aerospace Valley and Invest in Toulouse are among the 2026 exhibitors.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The offering covers the entire aerospace testing chain: engine and structural test benches, data acquisition and telemetry, sensors and instrumentation, climatic, vibration and acoustic testing, EMC, non-destructive testing, materials and composites testing, simulation and modelling, flight testing, battery and electric or hydrogen propulsion testing, and air defence systems testing.

On the visitor side, the organiser targets technical functions and programme managers: test and validation engineers, R&D managers, flight test engineers, materials engineers, laboratory managers, simulation and modelling managers, standardisation and certification engineers, software engineers. The trade show is aimed at aircraft and engine manufacturers as much as at tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, laboratories and advanced air mobility start-ups.

Notable exhibitors

The full, up-to-date list is published on the official website's exhibiting companies page. Companies confirmed for 2026 include Airbus and Airbus Structures Test, Safran Data Systems, Leonardo, Siemens, HBK, NI, AVL List, MTS Systems, Teradyne, dSPACE, DEWEsoft, Kistler, PCB Piezotronics, Element Materials Technology, Applus+ Laboratories, SOPEMEA, Emitech Groupe, Clemessy, Hensoldt Nexeya France, Symetrie, EikoSim, as well as the Dutch Royal NLR, the Lukasiewicz Institute of Aviation, and DGA Techniques Aérospatiales.

The Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster and the Invest in Toulouse agency also hold a stand, giving the trade show a showcase role for the regional ecosystem.

Quality of the audience

No audited attendance figures have been published for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions. The organiser sticks to a qualitative statement, announcing thousands of visitors from around the world, and highlights the historical presence of test engineers from Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Dassault, Element, GE, Lilium, NASA, Rolls-Royce, Safran, Thales and Volocopter.

The useful signal for an exhibitor is therefore not the volume but the format: two days, a single hall, an audience of specifying engineers, and a Toulouse hub that concentrates the design offices and testing facilities of the European sector.

Events & community

The three forums

The Testing Forum covers aerospace testing in the broad sense: flight testing, certification, data, instrumentation and emerging aircraft technologies. The 2026 programme covers, among other things, AI-assisted engineering teams, flight test data architectures, AESA radar testing, high-aspect-ratio wings, open-source data acquisition and cryogenic test benches. Among the speakers announced: Jon Eklof, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at GKN Aerospace, Helen Leadbetter, Technical Strategy Lead Zero Emissions Flight at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, Adrian Neve, Head of QinetiQ Flight Test Organisation, and Kristof Risse, Head of Virtual Product House at DLR.

The Future Propulsion Forum focuses on current and next-generation propulsion: alternative fuels, emissions reduction, electrification and emerging concepts. Speakers include Jean Botti, CEO and CTO of VoltAero, Roel van Benthem, R&D Manager Energy Management at NLR, and Mark Eldridge, Director of New Energy Strategy at Element Materials Technology.

The Defence Testing Forum is new for 2026. It covers the testing and evaluation of military aircraft and equipment, from R&D through to certification and operations: autonomy, drones and counter-drone systems, combat aircraft, directed-energy weapons, and civil-military bridges. Thomas Grohs, Head of Unmanned Aerial Systems at Airbus Defence and Space, Jérémy Caussade, co-founder, chairman and chief engineer of AURA AERO, and Evanthia Pappa, Senior Researcher at Leonardo, are announced as speakers.

The list of Testing Forum speakers is published on the forum speakers page; speakers for the Future Propulsion Forum and the Defence Testing Forum appear on the dedicated pages for each of those two forums. Speaking proposals go through the conference director, Ben Sampson, editor of Aerospace Testing International.

Community & networks

A free networking evening, open to all participants, is scheduled for Tuesday 29 September 2026 from 5pm, with live music, at the close of the first day.

The trade show is backed by the magazine Aerospace Testing International, which provides editorial coverage of the event and publishes its previews and exhibitor interviews. Aerospace Valley promotes the event to its members.

Toulouse concentrates several complementary events listed on Agoris: Aeromart Toulouse for aerospace supply chain business meetings, and SIANE for industrial partners in the Grand Sud region. At national level, Le Bourget's Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace plays on an entirely different register, that of the sector's commercial and institutional showcase.

On site: what you need to know

For access, parking and accommodation, see the venue page: MEETT Toulouse, avenue de la Concorde, 31840 Aussonne.

Specific to the trade show: the event occupies MEETT hall 7. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September 2026. All bags go through a security check at the entrance, a venue requirement.

Tram line T1 serves MEETT directly, linking Toulouse-Blagnac airport to the venue in around fifteen minutes, as well as metro line A at the Arènes station. Airport shuttle line 30 also serves the site from Matabiau station, with stops at Compans Caffarelli, Jeanne d'Arc and Jean Jaurès. By car, parking is available in zones A to M.

How much it costs to exhibit

MA Exhibitions does not publish a stand pricing schedule. Participation terms are provided on request via the exhibitor registration form on the official website, depending on the surface area and location chosen on the hall 7 floor plan.

Only one pricing element is publicly documented: Aerospace Valley announces a 15% discount on 2026 stand rates for its members (source: Aerospace Valley).

On the visitor side, entry is free on online registration and the badge gives access to all three forums at no extra cost and with no separate sign-up.

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Go through the exhibitor request form on the official website to get the pricing schedule and space availability: the hall 7 floor plan can be viewed online and fills up over the course of the year.
• Check eligibility for the 15% discount reserved for Aerospace Valley members before signing.
• Submit a speaking proposal to the conference management: the three forums are the main lever for technical visibility, and a speaking slot is often worth more than extra stand space.
• Plan around a two-day format only: the trade show is short and dense, so plan a tight lead-qualification process rather than an elaborate stand design.

For the decision-making visitor

• Register in advance: the badge is free and gives access to all three forums, at no extra cost.
• Choose your day based on the programme: the Future Propulsion Forum is held on 29 September, the Defence Testing Forum on 30 September, and the Testing Forum runs across both days.
• Check the online exhibitor directory and prepare a list of stands to visit: 150 companies over two days call for a planned route.
• Favour tram line T1 from the airport or the city centre: it stops right at the venue entrance.
• Stay for the networking evening on 29 September, open to all participants.

Policy & CSR initiatives

The trade show's website does not publish a page dedicated to environmental or social commitments, and the Mark Allen Group does not post any public sustainability policy online, aside from a modern slavery statement. No ISO 20121 certification specific to the event is displayed to date.

The verifiable basis therefore comes from the venue. MEETT has been ISO 20121 certified since July 2022, a standard governing responsible management applied to events. The site is operated by Toulouse Événements, a wholly owned subsidiary of GL events.

Operationally, MEETT reports a waste sorting rate raised to 44% in 2022, up from 32% in 2019, an on-site waste management unit, a fleet of electric buggies and encouragement of low-carbon transport, with a direct tram link. The venue also takes part in food bank collections during trade shows.

At the level of the operating group, GL events reports a 22% reduction in its emissions in 2022 compared with 2019, 52% renewable electricity group-wide, and 100% renewable electricity at its French sites.

On substance, however, the environmental theme is at the heart of the trade show's content: the Future Propulsion Forum is entirely dedicated to hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, electrification and emissions reduction. This is a programme topic, to be distinguished from an organisational commitment by the event itself.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The trade show was born in Toulouse in 2023, in the wake of the magazine Aerospace Testing International, acquired by the Mark Allen Group from UKi Media & Events in 2019. The choice of city is not incidental: it is the only European hub where an aircraft manufacturer, its testing facilities, a state testing centre and a dense network of suppliers all converge.

The growth is first of all a matter of scope. The inaugural 2023 edition brought together around a hundred suppliers around a single Open Tech Forum. Three years on, the trade show announces over 150 exhibitors, more than 70 speakers and three separate forums, including one dedicated exclusively to defence testing, launched in 2026. The calendar has also settled on late September, after shifting from 19-20 September 2023 to 10-11 September 2024, then to 30 September-1 October 2025.

The limitation remains measurement. No audited attendance report has been published since launch, leaving exhibitors without a quantified point of comparison against other events in the sector. The trade-off is therefore based on the nature of the audience, highly technical and concentrated, and on the access cost of a two-day format in a single hall, rather than on visitor volume.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (aerotestdevelopmentshow.com).