Aeronautics / Energy-efficient planesA technocampus dedicated to hydrogen

The project, in partnership with the Aerospace Valley, Toulouse’s aeronautics cluster, will enable fundamental research teams and industrial players with mutual needs in hydrogen production to come together for collaborative projects in a specially equipped, 15,000m² building.

It will be the largest European research center for technological innovations and pilot projects dedicated to green hydrogen including partnerships with the CNRS, the University of Toulouse, the ONERA, research labs, and major players such as Safran and Airbus, among other industrial players.

Between January and March of 2021, technological projects will be selected via call for tenders expressing interest.  Up to 10M€ in co-financing from the Occitanie region is planned in order to start getting concrete projects off the ground as early as this coming summer.

As part of a desire to initiate a green transition in transport of the future, these planes will help open up territories and promote economic development.

At the northern end of the site of Francazal, hangars renovated in 2019 house several aeronautics companies like ATR, Tarmac Aerosave, Safire, AirPlane Delivery and AirPlane Painter.
Aura Aero, designer and manufacturer of two-seater aerobatic aircraft, also has its production site in Francazal. A resolutely agile company, it aims to integrate all the technological improvements that are part of the road to carbon-free aviation, particularly in electricity.

The southern part, purchased by Toulouse Métropole for the State, will be dedicated to autonomous, decarbonized ground and air transportation companies like Hyperloop TT, EasyMile or Ascendance who already have operations there. In total, there  are currently 32 companies and 350 employees based at Francazal.

Since the army's disengagement, air traffic has fluctuated between 3,500 and 4,000 takeoffs/landings per year. The platform exclusively accommodates business aviation flights, aero-industrial aviation flights and State aviation flights (first regiment of the parachute train that uses the aerodrome infrastructure to perform maneuvers, airdrops, especially during interventions in the Sahel such as the Barkhane missions).