The company was created in 1970 from the state-owned companies Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation and Soci d'Etudes et de R alisation d'Engins Balistiques (SEREB).
In 1999, a rospatiale merged with Matra Haute Technologie to form the A rospatiale-Matra company. This division manufactures missiles as part of the MBDA consortium.
On July 10, 2000, A rospatiale-Matra merged with other European companies to form EADS.
The Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale, was ranked at the top of the european aerospace industry in terms of turnover, manpower and the range and quality of its products.
It designs and build a comprehensive line of aerospace hardware, from the light utility plane to the Airbus widebody, from light helicopters to the heavy lift twin-engine troop carrying version, from the man-portable antitank missile to the strategic ballistic missile, from weather satellites to the Ariane launcher and the Hermes spacecraft.
Two turbines Artouste for the prop and a Arius for the tip jets
Aerospatiale's net margin was around 2.6 per cent and Lagardere's was 10 per cent, Aerospatiale said in a statement.
Aerospatiale's Michot derided what he called the "Anglo-Saxon fantasy" of a heavy-handed state intervention in the company's commercial affairs and stressed his company's commitment to operating efficiently.
Aerospatiale upped its orders forecast for 1998 at the half-year by 10 per cent to 68 billion francs and had reached 62 per cent of its objectives, international affairs and sales director Denis Verret said.