Tour de France 2022
Summer 2022, the Sol.Ex. got out of the workshop at St Rémy les Alpilles’s gliding club. Then came a serie of test flights to validate its flight characteristics. Of course it was also required to test its ability to travel widely in total autonomy.
Baptistou went away and flew all around France onboard the Sol.Ex., sleeping under the wing at each stop.
More that 2600km as the crow flies were crossed in 17 stops. By road this would have been 4000 km.
The glider’s performances happens to be excellent :
- as pure glider, the aircraft has a glide ratio close to 40, which is quite acceptable for this kind of glider.
- then engine allows to take-off easily
- the solar panels are more efficient than expected, the battery was always full in time to ensure the scheduled takeoffs.
The tour de France has been achieved in total autonomy, using only wind and sun. Appart from the requirement for Baptistou to find a sandwich at each stop were he landed ! And occasionnally, we’d admit that it was nice to find a hangar when the weather came to be stormy.
