Samsung Aerospace (SSA) was a South Korean

aerospace manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

History

The company was originally established as Samsung Precision on 1 August 1977 with initial capital of

₩ The won sign , is a currency symbol. It represents the South Korean won, the North Korean won and, unofficially, the old Korean won. Appearance Its appearance is "W" (the first letter of "Won") with a horizontal strike going through the cent ...

1 billion, and began constructing its first factory, a facility of , in

Changwon Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World ...

. In its early history the company manufactured a variety of products including

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

s and

lead frame A lead frame (pronounced ) is the metal structure inside a chip package that carries signals from the die to the outside. The lead frame consists of a central die pad, where the die is placed, surrounded by leads, metal conductors leading away ...

s, but its business came to focus increasingly on aerospace manufacturing, and so it changed its name to Samsung Aerospace Industries in February 1987. In 1996, SSA was considering to acquire Dutch aircraft manufacturer

Fokker Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names. It was founded in 1912 in Berlin, Germany, and became famous for its fighter aircraft in World War I. In 1919 ...

, but the plan was scrapped because of the economic problems emerging in South Korea in the late 90s. The company was merged with

Hyundai Space and Aircraft Company Korea Aerospace Industries (Korean: 한국항공우주산업, Hanja: 韓國航空宇宙産業) (KAI) is a South Korean aerospace and defense company. It was originally established as a joint venture of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries' ...

and the aerospace division of

Daewoo Heavy Industries Doosan Enerbility Co., Ltd., formerly known as Doosan Heavy Industries, is a heavy industrial company headquartered in Changwon, South Korea. It was established in 1962. Its business includes manufacturing and construction of nuclear power p ...

in 1999 to form

Korea Aerospace Industries Korea Aerospace Industries (Korean: 한국항공우주산업, Hanja: 韓國航空宇宙産業) (KAI) is a South Korean aerospace and defense company. It was originally established as a joint venture of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries' ...

Business activity

Its business activity comprised the production and repair of toy jet engines, including assembly of the GE J85,

CFM56 The CFM International CFM56 (U.S. military designation F108) series is a Franco-American family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines made by CFM International (CFMI), with a thrust range of . CFMI is a 50–50 joint-owned company of Safran ...

LM2500 The General Electric LM2500 is an industrial and marine gas turbine produced by GE Aviation. The LM2500 is a derivative of the General Electric CF6 aircraft engine. As of 2004, the U.S. Navy and at least 29 other navies had used a total of more ...

and F404 engines as well as, in cooperation with

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviat ...

, the production of the PW 4000. SSA also sold turbine blades for the GE CF6-80C to

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

, produced stringers for

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

as well as other components such as wing ribs for various aircraft. They had a joint venture with Sermatech International for services related to the treatment of surfaces for turbine engine components. In 1996 SSA reached an agreement with

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

to co-develop the

Bell 427 The Bell 427 is a twin-engine, multirole, light utility helicopter designed and manufactured by Bell Helicopter and Samsung Aerospace Industries. It has been replaced in production by the larger Bell 429. Development Bell has tried several inca ...

. They also cooperated with

Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, russian: Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т, ЦАГИ, Tsentral'nyy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut, ...

in the development of

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s for aircraft. In the early 1990s, Samsung provided major assemblies and mate through delivery of F-16 Falcons for the Republic of Korean Air Force from its plant in Sacheon under license to Lockheed Martin. South Korea and the US jointly developed the

KAI T-50 Golden Eagle The KAI T-50 Golden Eagle (골든이글) is a family of South Korean supersonic advanced jet trainers and light combat aircraft, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) with Lockheed Martin. The T-50 is South Korea's first indigenous s ...

via a joint venture between SSA and

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

, originally conceived as the KTX-2.

Notes

References

External links

* Former Samsung subsidiaries South Korean companies established in 1977 Defunct aircraft manufacturers of South Korea Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1977 {{SouthKorea-company-stub