JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015 - 15

designer Twin Group, which
has already produced a design
for the aircraft exterior and will
also design the interior.
JCM: When will the first airplane
be finished, and what are the
production schedule and goals?

C. C. : A model goes into

The three founders of Elixir Aircraft answering questions at Paris Airshow
2015 (from left to right: Arthur Léopold-Léger, Nicolas Mahuet and Cyril
Champenois)

airplane, and how much will it
cost?

C. C. : The airplane will be

certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for
the Certification Specification
Light Sport Aircraft (CSLSA).
It will be a high-performance
aircraft for private individuals
and will cost from €160,000 to
€200,000, depending on the
options chosen.
We want to provide a peerless
level of comfort, equipment and
user friendliness for that price.
Certification has killed new
light aircraft development, because getting certified costs too
much. That's why ULMs have
developed so much in Europe.
Today, thanks to the use of
carbon, we can propose a
very good airplane under the
regulatory limit of 600 kg of
total weight in flight for the
Light Sport Aircraft (LSA)
certification. Our two-seater
will weigh about 265 kg empty,
for 280 kg of payload. Pilot
and passenger will finally be
able to take baggage worthy
of the name, of the long-haul
cabin bag type. We'll propose
the airplane with a choice of
two Rotax engines: one with

100 HP, enabling speeds of 145
knots for seven hours (burning
13.8 l/hour at 65% power) and
a 115 HP turbo engine that can
do 170 knots, making it possible
to go, for example, from Paris to
Cannes in 3-4 hours. Maintenance will be much easier,
thanks to the corrosion and
fatigue resistance of composites.

wind tunnel testing as of September 2015, and fabrication
of the composite production
tooling will start sometime that
same autumn.
The first flight is scheduled
for mid-2016, and marketing operations for early 2017.
Pre-ordering opened up in
mid-June; to be on the waiting
list, you have to pay a €5000
deposit. We address mainly
a replacement market. We
estimate the total accessible
market in Europe at 70 aircraft.
The break-even point can be

reached with 15 aircraft, and we
hope to sell 20-30 per year. The
international market, especially in the Commonwealth
countries, is much larger than in
Europe.
JCM: What kind of financing do
you have for your project?

C. C. : For the moment, the

three creators hold 100% of
the equity capital, with CEO
Arthur Léopold-Léger as the
majority shareholder. Our
application has already been
accepted by a number of
national and regional institutions, but we're still looking for
other investors to complete our
financial arrangements. n
More information:
www.elixir-aircraft.com
www.c3technologies.fr
Contact:
contact@elixir-aircraft.com

JCM: Can you tell us more about
its composite structure?

C. C. : Apart from the airframe
in titanium and the landing gear
in steel, all structural components will be made of carbon.
The airplane's seven key parts
will be made of prepreg-based
carbon composite: the onepiece fuselage, the 8-meter-long
mono wing with an unusual
box-type structure (there are
no more ribs, the partitions run
along the entire wing span),
the two ailerons, the stabilizer,
and the two elevators. The wing
structure passes underneath
the pilot. The tank consists of a
flexible, explosion-proof pouch
filled with foam to prevent
swaying, and slipped inside the
wing to simplify weight distribution. What is "lost" in weight
is gained in comfort. We are
working with the automotive

No99 September 2015 /

jec composites magazine 15
http://www.elixir-aircraft.com http://www.c3technologies.fr http://www.mccleananderson.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #99 - September 2015
