Sud Aviation

Société nationale de constructions aéronautiques Sud Aviation (French pronunciation: [syd avjasjɔ̃];lit. 'National Aeronautical Construction Company South Aviation') was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating in the merger of SNCASE and SNCASO on 1 March 1957. Both companies had been formed from smaller privately owned corporations that had been nationalized into six regional design and manufacturing pools just prior to the Second World War.

The company became a major manufacturer of helicopters, designing and producing several types which went on to be built in large numbers, including the Alouette II (the first production helicopter powered by a gas turbine engine; first flight in 1955), the Puma (1965) and the Gazelle (1967). In 1967, an agreement between France and the United Kingdom arranged for joint production and procurement of the Puma and Gazelle, together with the British-manufactured Westland Lynx. Sud Aviation also developed the Caravelle, the first jet-powered passenger airliners for the short-medium range market.

In 1970, Sud Aviation merged with both Nord Aviation and the Société d'étude et de réalisation d'engins balistiques (SEREB) to form Aérospatiale.

Sud Aviation became an early innovator in the field of commercial jetliners. Almost two years prior to its formation, on 27 May 1955, the first prototype of the Sud Aviation Caravelle had conducted its maiden flight. The company continued the Caravelle's flight test programme, which received its certificate of airworthiness in May 1959, and it commenced operations with the French flag carrier Air France shortly thereafter. Further orders for the type would be received from various airlines and in four years, 172 Caravelles had been sold. The Caravelle's favourable early sales record was attributed to it having effectively no jet-powered rivals, being the only short-haul jetliner for several years following its introduction.

Several models of the Caravelle were developed, generally in response to the increasing power of available engines, which allowed progressively higher takeoff weights. By 1963, there were six versions of the Caravelle in production, designated III, VI-N, VI-R, 10A, 10B, and X-BIR. The final assembly line for the Caravelle was at Sud Aviation's factory at Blagnac Airport near Toulouse. Parts of the aircraft were also manufactured at other sites across France and in other countries. Production ceased after 282 Caravelles of all types had been manufactured, including 2 prototypes or pre-production aircraft and 280 production aircraft. Sud Aviation's break-even point had been forecast to be around the 200-unit mark.

Despite its commercial success, the Caravelle was not the focus of Sud Aviation's development efforts during the early 1960s as the majority of the company's design engineers were reallocated onto a successor for the Caravelle. The project ambitiously aimed at producing a supersonic transport with the same general size and range as the Caravelle. It was decided that this should be named after the firm's recent success, thus the Super-Caravelle name was applied to the design. The French Government had requested supersonic transport designs from Sud Aviation, as well as French rival firms Nord Aviation and Dassault during the late 1950s and of the three submissions, the Super-Caravelle won the contest with a medium-range design, which was deliberately sized to avoid competition with transatlantic designs assumed to already be on the drawing board.

However, in part due to the high projected cost of the project, it was decided, at the direction of both the French and British governments, to form a consortium with the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in November 1962, merging their design and production efforts to develop a supersonic transport. Out of these combined efforts, Concorde would emerge. At first, the new consortium intended to produce long-range and short-range versions, however there was no interest in the short-range version and it was dropped to focus on the long-range airliner. The consortium received non-binding options for over 100 of the long-range version from the major airlines of the day, and Pan Am, BOAC, and Air France were to be the launch customers, with six Concordes each. Other airlines in the order book included Panair do Brasil, Continental Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airlines, Air India, Air Canada, Braniff, Singapore Airlines, Iran Air, Olympic Airways, Qantas, CAAC Airlines, Middle East Airlines, and TWA. Concorde sold very poorly due to several factors. Costs spiralled to more than six times the original projections, arriving at a unit cost of £23 million in 1977 (equivalent to £180.49 million in 2023). Its sonic boom also made supersonic travel over land unrealistic. World events, such as the 1973–74 stock market crash and the 1973 oil crisis, had made airlines cautious about aircraft with high fuel consumption rates; and new wide-body aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, had made subsonic aircraft more efficient, presenting a low-risk option for airlines. Only Air France and British Airways (the successor company to BOAC) ultimately took up their orders for Concorde.

In the early 1960s, Sud Aviation entered the general aviation light aircraft market when it introduced the GY-80 Horizon, designed by Yves Gardan. The first GY-80 prototype flew on 21 July 1960 and 267 of the type were eventually built.