The cases of Photonis and Segault, these French technological nuggets in which foreign industrialists are interested, have caused a lot of ink to flow. Lisa Airplanes is just beginning to stand out. This Savoyard company invented the Akoya, a two-seater foiled seaplane capable of landing on land, rough seas and snow. It is the only one in the world that has successfully passed the tests. These innovations that cost millions of euros could go to China.
With no contracts, funding and certification pending, the startup went into liquidation a year ago. In January, it went to the Chinese company Zhejiang Xingxue General Aviation Industry R&D, a minority shareholder, to which the Annecy commercial court sold the assets for 90,000 euros. For this amount, it will acquire patents, moulds, state-of-the-art aeronautical tools and a prototype of the Akoya.
“Incredible” court decision
Gabriel Terrasse, CEO of L’Hydroptere 2.0, which immediately acquired Lisa’s assets with a project, has no intention of stopping there. Since January, he has been fighting to keep these innovations from going to Beijing. For him, the judicial decision is “amazing”.
The manager has filed an appeal with the Chambéry Court of Appeal, which is due to rule on June 1. The case was also reported to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The Nantes SME even proposes to align itself with the offer of the Chinese company so as not to let Akoya go. The idea is to use the technologies of this luxury seaplane to develop public utility devices.
The project is to develop large seaplanes for transport in difficult areas, for civil security, for maritime patrol missions and even a “Canadair” capable of taking off, landing or rescue even in bad weather.
The Concord of the Seas
The Nantes SME has all the legitimacy for these programs, especially since it is already working on the installation of foils on boats, a field that it dominates. In 2019, it refloated l’Hydroptère, the multihull created in the 1980s by Éric Tabarly and Alain Thébault with DCNS, now Naval Group. It was dropped from 2015 to 2019 in Hawaii due to a lack of sponsors and funding. With Chris Welsh, Gabriel Terrasse buys it at auction to repatriate it to France and restore it.
This flying trimaran remains to this day the world’s fastest at sea, reaching a top speed of 55.5 knots, or over 100 km/h.
Indeed, to achieve such performance, it is equipped with aeronautical technologies. The carbon structural beams come from the A340, the sheets come from the Mirage 2000 and the struts from the Rafale Marine.
Will Gabriel Terrasse be able to create the plane of his dreams while safeguarding Akoya’s innovations? Answer in June before the Paris Air Show, where the seaplane was once a sensation. The leader calls himself an “optimist.” “We saved the Hydroptère, why for the Akoya?”
Source: BFM TV
