Aérospatiale

Aérospatiale was a French state-owned aerospace and defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as the Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale through the merger of three state-owned firms, Nord Aviation, SEREB and Sud Aviation. While it existed it was one of the largest aerospace companies in the world, Europe's biggest general aeronautics manufacturer and its leading exporter in that industry. Its products included civilian and military aircraft and helicopters, launch vehicles and satellites, and weapon systems from intercontinental ballistic missiles to portable anti-tank missiles. It took a leading part in multinational programmes such as the Concorde airliner, the Ariane series of launch vehicles and the Airbus A300. In 1992 its helicopter division was combined with that of Germany's DASA to form Eurocopter, and in 1999 its satellite manufacturing division was acquired by Alcatel to form Alcatel Space, later Thales Alenia Space. The remaining assets merged with Matra in October 1999 and joined DASA and CASA in 2000 to form EADS, later renamed Airbus.