Team French E-Racer is a French association, and also a club of the French Aircraft Homebuilding Association (Fédération RSA). The team is composed of five pilots who are found of aviation and have complementary competencies.
Crew information
Dominique Milcendeau is the Co-founder, team manager and team pilot and has been deeply involved in pylon air racing in France since 2002. This former French Air Force pilot is now a PC12 captain for an European company and has totalled 5000 hours of flights on different types of plane and gliders.
Alexandre is with Dominique the co-founder of the team. He started his career in the financial market and is now an entrepreneur and a private pilot.
Bruno has a PhD is Professeur Agrégé in Electronical Engineering. He teaches at the Institute of Technology of Chartres, The School of Polytechnical Engineering in Orleans, and at ESTACA in Saint Quentin en Yvelines. He is deeply interested in aeronautics, and has already built several ultra light aircrafts with an electrical powertrain.
Christophe is an auto-entrepreneur, who has designed and built a 5-axis numerical central lathe for large parts. He exploits this machine to produce prototype parts made of composite material for the aeronautical and automobile industries. Christophe is also a 3-axis ULM and paramotor pilot.
Frédéric is an aeronautical engineer, private pilot and light aviation enthusiast who has a solid experience in small aircraft and UAV designing. He has worked on many projects concerning propulsion, aircraft design and innovative drones and have an extended knowledge of electrical powertrains for aviation.
What is the Powertrain concept for the plane?
We will retrofit an existing racer, a Cassutt IIIM with an electric propulsion system. We have also identified most of the components needed to develop its powertrain which is based on self-developed and on shelf parts.
In early January 2020 we created the 3D scan of the plane with the support of Aéro Concept Engineering (ACE) on their premises. This first step enables us to upgrade the racer aerodynamic and integrate the electrical propulsion system.
What is the development timeline of the plane?
The already mentioned Cassutt IIIM has already participated to races in France, from piston engine to electric powertrain.
The next step for the team is to manage to trigger interest for sponsors or partners to start to build the powertrain in order to integrate it into its racer. The development timeline will depend on the supporting level the team will manage to get from partners and sponsors!
What are you most looking forward to about Air Race E?
The aircraft homebuilder’s spirit is driving the team. We are convinced that electrification is one solution among several ones to reduce the negative impact of aviation in the global warming.
Electric powertrains designed for racers is the first step for the next air commuting and recreational solutions, and we hope that such a project will convince other teams to join the exciting Air Race E championship.
About the aircraft
The plane that French E-Racer team has chosen for the project is a Cassutt 111M, more precisely, it is the French Cassutt with the registration F-PAAF. This Cassutt first flew in 1997 and has taken part in many pylon races in France organized by the APAF.
