A hundred years later, high school students will rebuild a legendary plane piloted by Saint-Exupéry
It is no longer found except in photos in history books or on the picture rails of museums, at the limit as a model on the desk of a collector. Not a single one of the 50 copies of the Late-28 released between 1928 and 1932 from the Latécoère factories in Toulouse. The mythical device, piloted by Saint-Exupéry, Guillaumet or Mermoz has nevertheless marked the history of aeronautics by its reliability and the comfort offered to its eight passengers installed in wicker armchairs. But it will soon be back, with its huge two-bladed propeller spanning 4 m, its carcass of wood and metal. In two copies even.
The first will fly. Thanks to the madness of the enthusiasts of the Cercle des Machines Volantes (CMV) who, for ten years, collected the authentic plans and period documentation and must take off their machine in 2029.
Authentic plans but today’s technologies
The second Laté-28, 21st century version, will be assembled in the cradle of its ancestors, in Montaudran, where the Latécoère factories have given up space to a place of homage, Flight of the Pioneers, which retraces the adventures of Aéropostale. This copy will be static and intended to be exhibited on site. “It will be made from the original plans transmitted by the CMV, specifies Alain Gaboriaud, the project manager of the Laté 28 association, but we will use today’s methods and means”. And the mechanics of the moment too. Because for the machining of certain parts, the students of about fifteen technological or professional high schools in Occitanie – in Toulouse, Blagnac, Tarbes or Auch – will be called upon for five consecutive years. The Laté-28 will be part of their educational curriculum, their practical work and their course of “transmission of know-how”. “This project-based pedagogy makes it possible to venture beyond disciplines, and thus to mobilize the cross-disciplinary skills of pupils and students”, assures Mostafa Fourar, the rector.
Khaled, a student in the second year of a BTS in industrial product design at the Lycée Dupuy in Tarbes, is one of the pioneers of the adventure. He is coming out of a one-month internship at the Laté 28 association and has been tasked with reproducing the frame of the fuselage. “I first had to decipher the plans from the time, then I reproduced the part flat with software”, says the student, confirmed in his dreams of aeronautics, and who does not yet know his mark of stage. Next year, his comrades will have to motorize the huge propeller of the Toulouse example. And make sure that she does not bless any of the visitors who have come to celebrate this homecoming.