Board member of VFW-Fokker (1970–1977)

With the 1969 merger of Bremen’s VFW with the Dutch N. V. Fokker, Eggers took up a board position in the Düsseldorf central company VFW-Fokker; the family moved to Bad Zwischenahn. The most significant projects of these years included series production of the VFW 614 short-haul jet, the VAK 191B vertical take-off aircraft and an aviation cooperation with Romania; the Airbus programme also took concrete shape in this period.

The German-Dutch merger, however, was ill-starred. DER SPIEGEL reported in August 1977 on the open power struggle in the group and credited Eggers as the one who „im Düsseldorfer Vorstand wiederholt Klapwijks Exzesse gegen den Bremer Unternehmensteil zu bremsen verstanden hatte“ (“in the Düsseldorf board repeatedly managed to curb Klapwijk’s excesses against the Bremen part of the company”). In mid-1977 Eggers left the board for reasons of age.

60th birthday (1972)

On 6 July 1972 Prof. Gerhard Eggers, chairman of the supervisory board of ERNO Raumfahrttechnik GmbH, turned 60. In an internal circular the ERNO staff paid tribute to their long-standing patron and the initiator of the company. The birthday was celebrated in grand style with many friends and acquaintances in Bad Zwischenahn.

Retirement (1977–1998)

After his farewell Eggers devoted himself to documenting his life’s work. He attended numerous reunions of former colleagues – including the “Atarier” meetings of SNECMA companions –, visited the European spaceport in Kourou and enjoyed time with his family. Honours such as honorary membership of the DGLR and the Hermann Oberth Society, and admission to the “Commanderie du Bontemps”, recalled the significance of his contribution.

Gerhard Eggers died on 23 August 1998 in Bad Zwischenahn from the consequences of a fall. In his memoirs he looked back on „ein Leben zwischen Himmel und Erde – getragen von der Vision des Fliegens“ (“a life between heaven and earth – carried by the vision of flight”).

ESA, NASA and Ariane after retirement

Eggers remained closely connected to European spaceflight in retirement. In June 1974 – alongside the Spacelab prime contract – ERNO, which he had co-founded, had received the contract to develop the second stage of the European ARIANE launcher; Bremen’s launcher expertise, begun with the third stage of the Europa rocket, thus continued seamlessly.

In September 1997, at the age of 85, the company invited Eggers to the 100th launch of an Ariane rocket at Kourou in French Guiana – a special experience of which he spoke at length. Through ERNO, MBB/ERNO and Daimler-Benz Aerospace, his pioneering work lives on today in the programmes of ESA, in cooperations with NASA and in the Ariane programme.