Aérospatiale

Aérospatiale (French: [aeʁɔspasjal]) was a French state-owned aerospace and defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale (lit. 'National Aerospace Industrial Company') through the merger of three state-owned aerospace firms: Nord Aviation, SEREB, and Sud Aviation.

During its existence, Aérospatiale was one of the world's largest aerospace companies. It was Europe's biggest general aeronautics manufacturer and its leading exporter in the industry. Its products included civilian and military aircraft and helicopters, launch vehicles and satellites, as well as weapon systems ranging from intercontinental ballistic missiles to portable anti-tank guided missiles. The company was also a key participant in several high-profile multinational programs, including the Concorde supersonic airliner, the Ariane series of launch vehicles, and the Airbus A300, the world’s first twin-engined wide-body airliner.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the ensuing "peace dividend", much of the European aerospace and defence industry began to consolidate. Aérospatiale's breakup was accelerated by the French government's efforts to privatize state-owned companies. In 1992, Aérospatiale and Germany's DASA each spun off their helicopter divisions, which merged to form the Eurocopter Group—later renamed Airbus Helicopters—with the two parent companies holding 70% and 30% stakes, respectively. In 1999, Aérospatiale’s satellite manufacturing division was acquired by Alcatel to form Alcatel Space, later renamed Thales Alenia Space.

In October 1999, Aérospatiale’s remaining assets were merged with the aerospace, defence, and telecommunications division of the French conglomerate Matra. The merger both consolidated the French aerospace sector and reduced the French government’s shareholding in preparation for a larger consolidation. The merged company, Aérospatiale-Matra, then joined with Germany’s DASA and Spain's CASA on 10 July 2000 to form the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which was later rebranded Airbus.

In 1970, Aérospatiale was created under the name Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale as a result of the merger of several French state-owned companies - Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation and Société d'étude et de réalisation d'engins balistiques (SEREB). The newly formed entity was the largest aerospace company in France. From the onset, the French government owned a controlling stake in Aérospatiale; at one stage, a 97 per cent ownership of the company was held by the government.

In 1971, Aérospatiale was managed by the French industrialist Henri Ziegler; that same year, the firm's North American marketing and sales arm, which had previously operated under the trading name of the French Aerospace Corporation, was officially rebranded as the European Aerospace Corporation, which was intended to better reflect Aérospatiale's increasing focus on collaborative efforts with its European partners.

Many of Aérospatiale's initial programmes were holdovers from its predecessors, particularly those of Sud Aviation. Perhaps the most high-profile of these programmes was Concorde, a joint French-British attempt to develop and market a supersonic commercial airliner. Initial work on this project had begun at Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation, its British counterpart. The engines for Concorde were also developed as a joint Anglo-French effort between SNECMA and Bristol Siddeley. However, the programme was highly politicised and encountered considerable cost overruns and delays. Ultimately, it was negatively affected equally by bad political decisions and an oil crisis in the 1970s; thus, only two airlines purchased Concorde.

Aérospatiale's senior management were keen to avoid the mistakes of the Concorde program. Their next major effort would be a transnational consortium with British Aerospace and the West German's aircraft company Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB). The British would eventually withdraw from the discussions, but the French and West Germans would proceed and form Airbus Industrie GIE. It was established with the purpose of building a twin-engined widebody airliner, known as the A300. At first, it was difficult to achieve sales and the outlook for the A300 seemed negative. However, Aérospatiale continued to manufacture the airliner without orders, as it could not reasonably cut back production as French law required that laid-off employees were to receive 90 per cent of their pay for a year as well as to retain their health benefits throughout.