SABCA (Sociétés Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and ast ...

company. Its main sectors of activity are

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consi ...

and

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

. SABCA was established during 1920. Presently, it is owned by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

aircraft manufacturer

Dassault Group Dassault Group (; also GIM Dassault or Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault SAS) is a French corporate group, group of companies established in 1929 with the creation of Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (now Dassault Aviation) by Marcel Dassault, a ...

and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

aerospace company

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 ...

, the latter in turn being a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

of GKN.

History

During 1920, SABCA was founded with the purpose of locally designing and building aircraft to satisfy

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

's emerging aviation requirements. Its first manufacturing site was adjacent to

Haren Airport Haren Airport or Evere Airfield is a former military airfield and civil airport in Brussels, Belgium. Located in Brussels' city section of Haren and adjacent municipality of Evere, it was established by the German Empire in 1914 and lasted until ...

, in the suburbs of

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. During the

Interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

, the company produced a number of in-house designs, as well as engaging in the manufacture of both civil and military aircraft. Throughout its existence, SABCA has been a prolific user of production licenses, which have authorised the firm to build other manufacturers' aircraft. During 1926, the company constructed a total 15

Airco DH.4 The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918. Ai ...

light bomber A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance. The earliest light bombers were intended to dro ...

s.Jackson 1987, p. 60. While its operations were disrupted by the German occupation of Belgium during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, SABCA resumed operations shortly following the end of the conflict. In 1955, a new manufacturing plant was opened at

Charleroi Airport Brussels South Charleroi Airport, nl, Luchthaven Zuid-Brussel Charleroi, german: Flughafen Brüssel-Charleroi (BSCA), also unofficially called Brussels-Charleroi Airport, Charleroi Airport or rarely ''Gosselies Airport'', is an internationa ...

. Around this same period, SABCA became involved in early

European space programmes European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

; the firm would be involved in the production of

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier ...

as well as both the Ariane and

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

expendable launch system An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several multistage ...

s. SABCA also cooperated with the Dutch manufacturer

in the manufacture of its F27 Friendship and 50 short-haul

airliner An airliner is a type of aircraft for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an ai ...

s. Other civil programmes the firm was involved with include producing elements of the

Dassault Mercure The Dassault Mercure is a twin-engined narrow-body jet-powered airliner developed and manufactured by French aircraft firm Dassault Aviation. According to Dassault, it was the first large-scale European cooperative civil aeronautics programme. ...

and VFW-Fokker 614 airliners. Throughout the

postwar In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...

era, the company was involved in the manufacturing of large numbers of licensed aircraft as well as associated upgrade programmes; such aircraft included the

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Ro ...

, the

Republic F-84 Thunderjet The Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) proposal for a "day fighter", the F-84 first flew in 1946. Although it entered service in 1947, the Thun ...

, the

Lockheed F-104G Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

, the

Dassault Mirage 5 The Dassault Mirage 5 is a French supersonic attack aircraft designed by Dassault Aviation during the 1960s and manufactured in France and a number of other countries. It was derived from Dassault's popular Mirage III fighter and spawned severa ...

, and the

AgustaWestland AW109 The AgustaWestland AW109, originally the Agusta A109, is a lightweight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose helicopter designed and initially produced by the Italian rotorcraft manufacturer Agusta. It was the first all-Italian helicopter to ...

helicopter. During the 1970s and 1980s, SABCA was responsible for operating one of the two European production lines for the

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a success ...

; a total of 164 aircraft would be manufactured at its

Gosselies Gosselies ( wa, Gochliye) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Located in the north of Charleroi, it was a city and a municipality of its own before the merger of the ...

facility. The European co-production initiative was officially launched on 1 July 1977; under this arrangement,

-produced components were delivered to

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

facility for fuselage assembly, which were then shipped back to Europe for final assembly of the aircraft at the SABCA's facility; deliveries to the

Belgian Air Force The Belgian Air Component ( nl, Luchtcomponent, french: Composante air) is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces, and until January 2002 it was officially known as the Belgian Air Force ( nl, Belgische Luchtmacht; french: Force aérienne belg ...

started in January 1979. During the following year, SABCA commenced deliveries to the

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) ( no, Luftforsvaret, , The Air Defence) is the air force of Norway. It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximatel ...

.Richardson 1990, pp. 13–15. During 1989, SABCA's involvement in the civil aviation sector received a significant boost via the first risk-sharing contract with the multinational aerospace conglomerate

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...

. It has since been a participant in all Airbus programmes, including the

A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

, the A400M Atlas, and the

A350 XWB The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 w ...

. SABCA also designs and manufactures subassemblies on behalf of other manufacturers, including

Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch or "MB". After World War II, Marcel Bloch changed his name to Marcel Da ...

and

Gulfstream Aerospace Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation is an American aircraft company and a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics. Gulfstream designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and services business jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,000 ...

. During 1992, demand for

composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ...

components had grown to the point where a dedicated

, ''SABCA Limburg'', was established to focus specifically on this activity.

Products

* SABCA-Julien SJ 1 - Monoplane * Gambier-SABCA *

SABCA Castar SABCA (Sociétés Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aéronautiques) is a Belgian aerospace company. Its main sectors of activity are civil aviation, space and defence. SABCA was established during 1920. Presently, it is owned by the French airc ...

- 1923 Monoplane, also known as the Poncelet Castar * SABCA Camgul - 1925 single-engine biplane *

- (15 built in 1926) * SABCA F.VII - license-built Fokker F.VII * SABCA S.2 - 1926 single-engine airliner * SABCA S.3 - projected monoplane trimotor transport * SABCA S.4 - projected single-engine sesquiplane fighter * SABCA S.11 - 1931 trimotor airliner * SABCA S.XII - 1931 trimotor feederliner; also known as S.12 * SABCA S.13 - projected army observation aircraft * SABCA S.14 - projected 1931 parasol-winged reconnaissance aircraft * SABCA S.20 - 1935 cabin tourer with elliptical wings * SABCA S.30 - 1936 parasol-winged light aircraftGrey John C.G. & Bridgman, Leonard. ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938''. Sampson Low, Marston & company, Ltd. . London. 1938. * SABCA S.40 - 1939 two-seat trainer * SABCA S.42 - projected 1938 two-seat fighter-trainer, scaled up, higher power version of S.40 * SABCA S.45 - projected license-built Caproni Ca.135 * SABCA S.46 - projected license-built Caproni Ca.310 * SABCA S.47 - license-built Caproni Ca.335 * SABCA S.48 - projected license-built Caproni Ca.312; cancelled due to the Fall of Belgium * SABCA S.60 * SABCA S.73 - license-built Savoia-Marchetti S.73

Locations

SABCA has spread its operations across three locations: *

- company headquarters and the main centre of operations. *

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

military aircraft A military aircraft is any Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing or rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are ...

and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

maintenance, technical and logistic support to the customers, opened in 1955. *

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

- high-performance composite component

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

subsidiary opened in 1989.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Grey John C.G. & Bridgman, Leonard. ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1938''. Sampson Low, Marston & company, Ltd. London. 1938. * Jackson, A.J. ''De Havilland Aircraft since 1909''. London: Putnam, Third edition, 1987. . * Peacock, Lindsay. ''On Falcon Wings: The F-16 Story''.

RAF Fairford Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use. Its most prominent use in recent years has been as an ...

, United Kingdom: The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund Enterprises, 1997. . * Richardson, Doug. ''General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon''. London: Salamander Books, 1990. .

External links

SABCA
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Anonyme Belge De Constructions Aeronautiques Aircraft manufacturers of Belgium Dassault Group Belgian companies established in 1920 Manufacturing companies based in Brussels