Flying Into The Future

Patrick Marous tells how his childhood fascination with space and aviation led him to his role as ceo of thyssenkrupp aerospace.

- Jodie Darlington

When you think about it, it’s really no wonder that so many children develop a keen interest in space and aviation. Their imagination is captured by the idea of rockets hurtling through outer space and brave astronauts exploring new frontiers. Even a visit to the airport to watch aircraft taking off and landing can be a thrilling experience for a small child. It certainly was for Patrick Marous, who has many fond childhood memories of travelling on planes to far-flung international destinations on holidays with his parents.

The young French lad loved everything about flying, from the bustling atmosphere in the airport to the magnificent aircraft and, of course, the flight crew, who were his heroes.

While some children tend to lose interest as they get older, particularly as they enter their teenage years, Patrick’s interest only increased.

“When I was a child, I had the opportunity to go to the Russian space centre and I met some of the European astronauts who were training to get to the Russian space station Mir,” Patrick recalls. “Later on, I went to a space camp in France, which was founded by French astronaut Patrick Baudry. It was a two-week experience where they basically train teenagers like mini astronauts, so we were training in the flight simulator and we had basic courses in avionics and how to fly a plane. We built small rockets that we had to launch. It was a lot of fun and that experience really inspired me a lot.”