The 1920s and 1930s were a time of experimentation in the aerospace industry.

Fast-evolving aircraft-making technology and barriers of entry still relatively low led to a proper Cambrian explosion of aviation, with entrepreneurs all over the place aiming to define the nascent civilian aviation industry.

One of those entrepreneurs was Pierre Mauboussin, the son of a family of Parisian jewellers, this French aeronautical entrepreneur got into the plane-making business in 1928. In its first incarnation, Avions Mauboussin managed to launch a few light aircraft models throughout the 1930s (the Mauboussin M.120 Corsaire being the most successful with over 100 built) and all the way to the early post-war years until the concern got linked to Fouga, another French plane maker (by the way, its popular Fouga Magister jet trainer is still around ans is one of the vintage aircraft that The Aviation Factory offers for demo flights, as we commented in this podcast with its founder!).

This historical background takes on a new relevance as the aviation industry is bracing for another era of entrepreneurship and disruption driven by greener propulsion technologies.

I am saying this because the new Avions Mauboussin has re-emerged in Belfort, in Eastern France (near the Swiss border) with the plan to develop and launch hybrid aircraft designed for regional inter-urban mobility. The firm makes a big point of its STOL capabilities, since, as it is the case of many new electric and hybrid concepts, the aim is to make air transport much more capillar.

Mauboussin has also enrolled several local universities and research institutes in its quest to become airborne before the end of 2022.

The two concepts the French startup has just unveiled look certainly sleek. One of them is a two seater called “Alérion M1h”, that will run,at least in its first iteration, on hybrid electric-thermal propulsion. This light 80kW aircraft is expected to have a range of several hundred miles, but for this it will need the help of fossil fuels when cruising. Mauboussin plans to transition to hydrogen in later versions of this model, from 2024 onwards.

The Alérion powerplant will be shared by the most eye-catching of the models just unveiled by the French firm, the Alcyon M3c, a rendering of which you can see topping this article. This is a six seater aircraft with propeller-tipped wings, capable of a cruise speed of 370km/h and with a rather respectable range of 1,500km. Mauboussin has labelled this concept as HSTOL (Hydrogen Short Take-Off & Landing). This one won’t be ready until 2026 at the earliest.

By the way, lots of interesting green aviation stuff coming out of France these days, check also our coverage about VoltAero, also working on hybrid concepts on the opposite side of the Hexagon.

Mauboussin aims to link past and future of French aviation