Tout sur : Hydroptère

Designed by French sailing legend Eric Tabarly, the Hydroptère sailed for the first time in 1994. Designed and built like an airplane by Dassault Aviation, DCN (Naval Group), VPLP, and with many other highly specialized experts involved, the foiling trimaran underwent a long period of reliability testing. It was finally in the early 2000s, with the arrival of Airbus (the aircraft manufacturer rebuilt all the structural parts and manufactured new foils) and a Swiss sponsor, banker Thierry Lombard, that the Hydroptère project led by Alain Thébault really took off, you might say...