AIT-VEPOP (IST-1999-13346) is a European Research Project within the IST Programme of 5th Framework. The project is scheduled from July 2000 to June 2002. Members of the AITVEPOP consortium are EADS CCR (co-ordinator), Airbus GmbH, Astrium GmbH, Flowmaster Ltd., CNAM, University of Oulu, and DFKI. AIT-VEPOP deals with issues of cooperative work and concurrent engineering with respect to the use of virtual prototypes in the early design phases of an aircraft.