Aérospatiale

Aérospatiale (French pronunciation: [aeʁɔspasjal]) was a major French state-owned aerospace and defence corporation. It was founded in 1970 as Société Nationale Industrielle Aérospatiale (English: National Aerospace Industrial Company) through the merger of three established state-owned companies: Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation and SEREB. The company was headquartered in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

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 activities covered civilian and military airplanes and helicopters; launch vehicles and spacecraft; as well both strategic and tactical weapon systems, from intercontinental ballistic missiles to man-portable anti-tank guided missile systems. The company was also prominently involved in many high-profile multinational programmes such as the Concorde supersonic airliner, the Ariane series of launch vehicles, and the Airbus A300, the world's first twin-engined widebody airliner.

As a consequence of the peace dividend following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, much of the European aerospace and defence industry began to consolidate, with Aérospatiale's break-up accelerated by the French government's efforts to privatize many state-owned companies. In 1992, Aérospatiale and Germany's DASA each spun off their helicopter businesses, which merged together to form the Eurocopter Group, with the two parent companies holding 70% and 30% ownership of the new entity respectively. Eurocopter would later be renamed Airbus Helicopters. In 1999, the Aérospatiale's satellite manufacturing division was acquired by Alcatel to form Alcatel Space, later renamed Thales Alenia Space.

Aérospatiale's remaining assets were merged with the aerospace, defence and telecommunications division of the French conglomerate Matra (Matra Hautes Technologies) to form Aérospatiale-Matra in July 2000. One year later, in 2001, Aérospatiale-Matra merged with DASA and Spain's Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) to form the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), later rebranded Airbus. The majority of Aérospatiale's assets are thus now part of Airbus or its related joint ventures.