David Toupé works in close collaboration with Airbus.

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L. Borrel / Airbus

  • World, European and French parabadminton champion, David Toupé has been working for two years on a new chair.

  • This is carried out by ProtoSpace, the Airbus innovation laboratory.

  • The project mobilizes around forty employees of the aircraft manufacturer.

    They work on it on a voluntary basis.

The holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer in Tokyo remains (very) uncertain.

But if they take place and if David Toupé brings back a medal from Japan in parabadminton, the world, European and French champion will share it with around forty people: all the volunteers who, for two years, have been working with him to build a custom-made chair as part of ProtoSpace, the Airbus innovation laboratory.

“In 2017, I was looking for partners,” explains the 43-year-old Haut-Pyrénéen, living in the small village of Gerde, near Bagnères-de-Bigorre.

The Airbus disability mission then decided to support me.

The door of the European aircraft manufacturer was ajar.

It opened for good a few months later.

"David can move mountains"

"I was put in contact with David and with the Creps because I was already working around sport and disability", says Christophe Debard, head of ProtoSpace, previously behind a "bionic" leg imagined for a champion. rowing.

“David is a motivated person who can move mountains to achieve his goals.

"

When the collaboration with Airbus began, the forty-something was already a cador of a discipline discovered when he was in a rehabilitation center after a serious skiing accident in 2003. The former hope of badminton, resident of Insep at l adolescence, actively participated in the development of this sport in France.

"It is by bringing back medals that we can best develop the practice," notes the technical advisor to the French Federation (FFBaD), currently in the midst of testing its new equipment.

To the nearest centimeter

“In ten days, we will have modified the morphology of his file three times,” explains William Bras, mechanical engineer on jet masts at Airbus, and volunteer on the athlete's project, which is in the “wheelchair player” category. without abdominals ”.

"A backrest that is one centimeter too high will block me to get the shuttle at the back of the court," explains David Toupé.

If it's too low an inch, I won't be responsive enough.

"

ProtoSpace therefore works meticulously, leveraging all the skills of the aeronautical giant.

“In particular, we called on an ergonomist, who usually works with helicopter pilots, to do movement analyzes, observes Christophe Debard.

We are on the trial-and-error model, which we use for many projects at Airbus: we try and when we make mistakes, we learn and we improve the concept.

"

Obviously, the champion has a central role in this process, thanks to “physical” meetings in the world before, which have been virtual for over a year.

“I will be able to determine an ideal position with different settings.

Once these are frozen, we will be able to switch to carbon parts and optimize the weight of the chair.

"

“Today, we are on aluminum and titanium and it weighs around 10 km, continues William Bras.

When the right parameters are found, the objective will be to provide David with a "full carbon" wheelchair, on which we would gain mass because we would no longer have to adjust screws.

"

Gain lightness and mobility

While an "ordinary" sports chair costs around 8,000 euros, it is literally invaluable, since the professionals of the aircraft manufacturer work on a voluntary basis on the project.

As for the materials, they come from partners of the company or the Airbus school.

"In two months, we will have already gained a kilo or two," said the parabadist, excited at the idea of ​​seeing his sport join the Olympic program.

If the event takes place, the Bigourdan will line up in singles and doubles, with Thomas Jakobs (29), based in Annecy.

If Tokyo is in the head, it will not be the end of his sporting adventure.

“We are already planning for Paris 2024,” says David Toupé.

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  • Toulouse

  • 2020 Olympics

  • Paralympic Games

  • Olympic Games

  • Airbus

  • Sport

  • JO 2024

  • Badminton