Sud Aviation

Sud Aviation

Company type	State-owned corporation
Industry	Aerospace
Predecessor	SNCASO SNCASE
Founded	1 March 1957
Defunct	10 July 1970
Fate	Merged
Successor	Aérospatiale Airbus
Headquarters	Toulouse, France
Key people	Maurice Papon (President, 1967–68)
Products	Aircraft
Number of employees	24 500 (1967)[1]
Subsidiaries	SOCATA

Sud Aviation (French pronunciation: [syd avjasjɔ̃], 'Southern Aviation') was a French state-owned aircraft manufacturer, originating from the merger of Sud-Est (SNCASE, or Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-est) and Sud-Ouest (SNCASO or Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-ouest) 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 Gazelle (1967). During 1967, an agreement between the British and French governments arranged for joint production and procurement of the Puma and Gazelle, together with the British Westland Lynx.^[2][3] Sud Aviation also developed the Caravelle, the first jet-powered passenger airliners for the short-medium range market.

During 1970, Sud Aviation merged with both Nord Aviation and Société d'études et de réalisation d'engins balistiques (SÉREB) to form the Aérospatiale company. Aérospatiale formed several large-scale international consortia, for example with British Aerospace and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm to form Airbus; the company ultimately merged into the European aerospace conglomerate EADS in 2000. During January 2014, EADS was reorganised as the Airbus Group.