Alain Thébault and the Hydroptere Team are the origin of different sailboats:
- In the 90s, they designed and built the first large flying boat, l'Hydroptère, at Airbus, which is the double world record holder for speed sailing in 2009 at more than 50 kt of average speed (95 km/h).
- In 2010, as part of a partnership in Switzerland, they designed a smaller model, l'Hydroptere.ch, now holder of three speed records on Lake Geneva.
- In 2012, the Hydroptere team was the scientific advisor of one of the challengers for the America's Cup especially on dynamic and flight stability for the AC 72.
- At the beginning of 2014, Alain Thébault, Anders Bringdal and their team of engineers from the aircraft industry - led by Philippe Perrier (Dassault Aviation) and Maurice Prat (Airbus) - launched the project Hydroptere Rocket, a planing sailboat whose objective is to increase the outright sailing speed record to 150 km/h (80 kt) average over 500 meters.