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