The story dates back to the beginning of summer 2021, during a first meeting with Colonel Arnaud Bouilland, then commander of BA 116. It is Laure Viellard, director of the school, who tells the rest. . “Building a plane is not complicated” he asks the students, during a visit to the base, in November 2021. The school is taking up the challenge. And a few months later, she received huge boxes. It’s a kit plane that has just arrived. Now we have to build it. “Around thirty students brought this project to life,” indicates Daniel Schlegel, teacher-researcher at Esta, who led the adventure. You can feel the emotion in his voice. “It’s something unique to make an airplane,” he adds, as he hands over, aware “privilege” that he had. Nearly 30 months after receiving the boxes, the plane is assembled.
Chloé Giss also felt this privilege. “At first, I didn’t dare touch too much,” she confides. Understanding, surely, the consequences that an error could have. “We cannot do this lightly,” she warns. Then, she became comfortable with the tools, techniques, “like riveting or drilling”, explains the student, who is moving towards aerospace and aeronautics. It is certain that this project opened doors for him. He also valued the school’s training. And it allowed Chloé to obtain the aeronautics initiation certificate (BIA); as part of this project, the students were registered in the air youth squadron (EAJ) of BA 116 in Luxeuil. “It’s a very rewarding project, she continues. There are only good memories in this hangar! »
The student workshop was set up in a building in the Friedrich barracks, in Belfort, belonging to the departmental military delegation. “We managed to collectively overcome the obstacles,” greeted Colonel Éric Larpin, departmental military delegate of the Territory of Belfort and commander of the Belfort defense base. Then, transmitting a message to the students, inviting them to a double life in parallel with their future professional career: “Don’t forget that the armies, particularly the air force, recruit reservists. » An invitation that will, without a doubt, be seized on the fly.
