The Team
The VELAR project is led by a team of 3 enthusiasts who come together in the same collective:
Aurélien ROUMET :
Designer
Professional pilot
Aerobatic pilot / F3A pilot / composites engineer.
Stéphane CARRIER :
Designer & brand pilot
Navy pilot
French F3A champion 2023
7th at the World Championship F3A 2023
Sébastien Gaume :
Technic Designer & 3D Designer
Aeromodel enthusiast
VELAR: from the first drawings to the prototype…
After a 10-year break, Stéphane Carrier returns to F3A in 2022.
June 2022
In June, the annual IWCT takes place in Saint Macaire en Mauges : Stéphane and Aurélien discuss the idea of developing an aircraft for the P25/F25 program.
For the moment Stéphane uses an OREKA but he plans to use another plane for next season.
During the summer, Aurélien begins to design cells based on Oxygen and Oreka.
October 2022
Initially, it was a monoplane but after some feedback from Stéphane the idea was to develop a biplane in the same concept as the Glacial, Nexus, Horus S,...
At the same time, Stéphane is selected for the World Championship and he orders a Sky Leaf Leader A1+: this will be a good reference base for the project.
Throughout the winter, we compare the different models on the market and take advice from one of the French references: Christian Bossard.
We clearly define the wing profile, confirm the wing and stab position and all adjustments.
Aurélien and Christian have good experience with biplanes in F3A because they used Wolfgang Matt's Citrin.They later developed their own Sphene biplane with many flaws at the time. Christian also spent a lot of time training his son, Arnaud, when he piloted the Prometheus.
January 2023
Now, the 2D plan is almost frozen in illustrator... That's what we thought at the time.
We know that to produce a high quality aircraft we need to model the entire aircraft in 3D.
In the past Aurélien modeled the Sphene on Dassault's Catia software but unfortunately he no longer has the time to do it.
A new member joins the team, Sébastien Gaume, who is the master of 3D modeling. A true enthusiast, in the same state of mind as the other members of the team, with great skills in 3D modeling and aeromodelling.
He and Aurélien start 3D modeling the plane and Stéphane receives his first Sky Leaf Leader at the same time.
March 2023
The 3D model is almost finished and the team is starting to think about how to produce a prototype, how to build planes with a partner,...
It's also the start of the F3A season and Stéphane shares his feedback with the Leader.
We believe we have made the right choices but we must wait to confirm our design.
June 2023
Almost 1 year after starting the design of this aircraft we are at the IWCT and we are sure to have made the right choices for the design.
The Sky Leaf Leader is a good plane, we hope to have more or less the same capabilities and we discover the Nexus (Oxygen Bip), which at first glance does not seem that far from our design, but we have no shrouds.
July / August 2023
Stéphane is the new French F3A Champion.
He leaves directly for the World Championship in Australia, with his two planes and a technical book in case he has the opportunity to discuss it with a partner to produce the VELAR...
After an 8th place at the World Championships, Stéphane had a good discussion with Yang Yong from Hui Yang F3A, the market leader.
He showed enormous interest in the project and said he could be the builder of the plane while providing us with his expertise.
September / October 2023
Yang comes back to us to see if we are interested in collaborating with his company.
After a few emails, we decide to improve some details of our design with Yang's advice and experiences: we add stays and optimize the cooling of the propulsion system.
At the end of October we are happy to finally say: the VELAR 3D model is finished!!!!!! A new part of the story begins.
October 2023 to June 2024
Hui Yang F3A begins to implement the construction of VELAR in its 2024 load plan.
After a few discussions we finalize the last details before building the prototype. It was decided, for reasons of production capacity, not to produce the VELAR with the transparent canopy.
Construction then begins with the manufacturing of laser-cut wings, CNC machining of the master, manufacturing of the mold then manufacturing of the first fuselage before finishing.
We remained involved in the entire manufacturing process because we provided plans, photos and vector files for decoration throughout the construction.
