VIDEO. Toulouse: helicopter plane, autonomous shuttle … discover the transport of the future in Francazal
Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari inaugurated, this Monday, November 22 in Toulouse, the innovation agency for transport, the Toulouse “lab” where the future of air, land and sea transport is being prepared. The minister also toured the nuggets of the “new mobilities” pole of Francazal. Reporting.
On the site of the former military airport of Francazal, under hangar HM7, a historic building of the French Air Force built in 1937, the aircraft of the future may be built. The Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, made a stop on Monday in this temple of aeronautics, on the occasion of his tour of the “Toulouse nuggets of new mobilities”. The company Aura Aéro, created by three former Airbus engineers, Wilfrid Dufau, Fabien Raison and Jérémy Caussade, presented to the Minister its revolutionary aerobatic aircraft prototype, the Integral R, two-seater side by side built in wood carbon, combining rigidity and lightness, a pioneering material and modernity.
Three units of the IntegralR, which have already completed 90 hours of test flights, will be delivered in the first quarter of 2022 to Midi-Pyrénées Voltige, Dijon Voltige and the Châteauroux club. The Integral E, similar but with an electric motor, must be certified and delivered to its first customers in 2023 while Aura is working on an electric aircraft project for 19 passengers (or cargo) intended for regional flights by 2027 .
Ascendance, still in Francazal, yesterday presented its model (at 1/4) of a hybrid electric helicopter, which has already flown. The Atea is the name of this “flying taxi” with a wingspan of 14 m and a weight of 2 tonnes, with vertical takeoff thanks to its eight rotors inserted in its biplane wings, will be able to transport, in 2025, pilot and passengers, for half the cost of a traditional helicopter, and making much less noise (less than 80 dB on takeoff against 95), according to Jean-Christophe Lambert, CIO president of Ascendance.
The Minister also announced that Easymile, a specialist in autonomous vehicles installed in Francazal, has received the first authorization for circulation on public roads in Europe for a level 4 autonomous shuttle. The Easymile shuttle will be able to run, without a driver, at the Toulouse Oncopole from September 2022.