Technoplane – Project Coordinator

Technoplane SAS is the founder and official Coordinator of first projects operating under the Lesser Open Bee License 1.3. Since 2011, Technoplane has initiated and managed the collaborative aerospace programs that today form the Collaborative Bee Ecosystem: Bee-Plane™, Mini-Bee™, ISO-Plane™, and GPS 4D™.

Technoplane SAS logo
Technoplane SAS – Founder and Coordinator of the Bee open engineering ecosystem.

🛫 Origin and Vision

Founded in France, Technoplane SAS created the Lesser Open Bee License to make open innovation possible in complex industrial and academic environments. The goal was to enable engineering schools, laboratories, and companies to work together transparently on aircraft and mobility concepts, while maintaining fair intellectual property protection and clear coordination rules.

The company’s vision is to build a new generation of collaborative aeronautical research programs that are:

  • Open: All educational and research results are shared under Chapter 2 – Open Source.
  • Structured: Work follows auditable TRL (Technology Readiness Level) milestones.
  • Sustainable: Each project integrates environmental and ethical considerations from its design phase.
  • Traceable: Every contribution is documented, versioned, and referenced under the Lesser Open Bee License.

⚙️ Coordinator Role under the Lesser Open Bee License

As defined in the license, the Coordinator holds a unique role among Participants. Technoplane is responsible for ensuring that all contributors — universities, students, or companies — work under consistent ethical and legal conditions. Its coordination duties include:

  • Validating the registration of projects under the Lesser Open Bee License.
  • Supervising compliance with intellectual property and publication rules.
  • Approving public references and license attributions for reports and models.
  • Managing royalty and audit mechanisms for industrial use
  • Maintaining the shared repositories and collaborative infrastructure (Collaborative Bee Wiki, BeeCoin ledger).

Technoplane acts as the technical, legal, and organizational backbone of the Bee ecosystem — ensuring fairness, transparency, and project continuity across institutions and generations.

🚀 The First Open Bee Projects

Technoplane launched the first projects under the Lesser Open Bee License between 2011 and 2013, establishing the foundations of today’s collaborative engineering network.

  • Bee-Plane™ (2012): A medium-range modular aircraft with a detachable fuselage (“Bee + Basket” system). Developed with ESTACA, ECL, INSA Toulouse, and ENSTA Paris, it reached TRL 2 and continues toward TRL 3 validation.
  • Mini-Bee™ (2015): A two-seat hybrid VTOL platform designed for medical, rescue, and training missions. Currently in TRL 3 with over ten universities contributing.
  • ISO-Plane™ (2019): A cargo aircraft capable of carrying ISO 20-foot containers autonomously, bridging air and ground logistics.
  • GPS 4D™ (2022): A 4D navigation and route-optimization system for Bee aircraft and VTOLs, integrating CesiumJS and AI analytics.

Each project is an educational and technical cornerstone of the open Bee network, promoting real-world collaboration between academia and industry.

🧭 The Collaborative Bee Ecosystem

Through its coordination role, Technoplane oversees an integrated ecosystem linking education, research, and entrepreneurship. This structure ensures that open results lead to long-term innovation:

  • Academic Nodes: Engineering schools contribute open research under Chapter 2 – Open Source.
  • Industrial Nodes: Companies develop prototypes and industrialize validated results under private chapters.
  • Data Nodes: Open data repositories and BeeCoin trace all contributions and associated royalties.
Collaborative Bee Ecosystem diagram
The Collaborative Bee Ecosystem – open, interconnected projects coordinated by Technoplane SAS.

📊 Governance and Transparency

Technoplane enforces open governance practices across all projects. Every contribution is version-tracked, audited, and documented within the official Collaborative Bee Wiki, ensuring:

  • Traceable authorship of models, simulations, and reports.
  • Clear academic recognition and continuity for student work.
  • Compliance with open data and intellectual property rules.
  • Financial transparency for royalty distribution.

This governance model allows multiple universities and companies to work together efficiently while protecting the integrity of the shared results.

💰 BeeCoin™ and Digital Traceability

Technoplane introduced BeeCoin™ — the open-value and audit token of the Bee ecosystem — to ensure transparent recognition and redistribution of collaborative work. BeeCoin records each validated deliverable (model, report, dataset) and links it to its author institution and TRL stage, providing verifiable digital traceability for audits and royalties.

🌍 Mission and Ethical Commitment

Technoplane’s mission is to prove that open, ethical, and sustainable engineering can coexist with industrial development. The company operates as a neutral coordinator ensuring that academic innovation translates into real technological progress accessible to all partners.

“Technoplane coordinates the Bee projects not as an owner, but as a guardian of open innovation.”

📬 Contact and References

For partnership, licensing, or coordination inquiries:

  • Technoplane SAS
  • Project Coordination Office – Bee Projects Consortium
  • www.beelicense.com

All public deliverables coordinated by Technoplane must include the following citation:

“Task achieved under the Lesser Open Bee License 1.3 – ©