SABCA () is a Belgian

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 astron ...

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, which can be both private and commercial. Most countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and ...

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

and defence. SABCA was established during 1920. Presently, it is owned by the Belgian group Orizio, itself owned by the Société Fédérale de Participations et d'Investissement (SFPIM) (a Belgian federal holding) and Sabena Aerospace.

History

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

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

's emerging aviation requirements. Its first manufacturing site was adjacent to Haren Airport, in the suburbs of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. During the

Interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

, 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 Airco DH.4 is a British two-seat biplane day bomber of the First World War. It was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland (hence "DH") for Airco, and was the first British two-seat light day-bomber capable of defending itself. It was desig ...

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 dr ...

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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, SABCA resumed operations shortly following the end of the conflict. In 1955, a new manufacturing plant was opened at Charleroi Airport. Around this same period, SABCA became involved in early European space programmes; 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

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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 destroyed during reentry or impact with Earth, or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of s ...

s. SABCA also cooperated with the Dutch manufacturer

Fokker Fokker (; ) was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1912 to 1996. The company was founded by the Dutch aviator Anthony Fokker and became famous during World War I for its fighter aircraft. During its most successful period in the 19 ...

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

airliner An airliner is a type of airplane for transporting passengers and air cargo. Such aircraft are most often operated by airlines. The modern and most common variant of the airliner is a long, tube shaped, and jet powered aircraft. The largest ...

s. Other civil programmes the firm was involved with include producing elements of the Dassault Mercure and VFW-Fokker 614 airliners. Throughout the

postwar A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

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 propulsion, 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 dev ...

, the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, the Dassault Mirage 5, and the AgustaWestland AW109 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 an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

; a total of 164 aircraft would be manufactured at its

Gosselies Gosselies (; ) is a town of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Charleroi, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowl ...

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 fifth largest in the Unit ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

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

Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) () 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 approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted ...

. 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 Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

. It has since been a participant in all Airbus programmes, including the A380, the A400M Atlas, and the A350 XWB. SABCA also designs and manufactures subassemblies on behalf of other manufacturers, including Dassault Aviation and

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

. During 1992, demand for composite components had grown to the point where a dedicated

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

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

Products

* SABCA-Julien SJ 1 - Monoplane * Gambier-SABCA * SABCA Castar - 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 Planned jet trainer, not built.https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/sabca-s-60.1767/ * SABCA S.73 - license-built Savoia-Marchetti S.73

Locations

SABCA has operations in two locations: *

- company headquarters and the main centre of operations. * Limburg - 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 the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

subsidiary opened in 1989. Before the merge with Sabena Engineering, SABCA also operated in

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

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 military of any type. Some military aircraft engage directly in aerial warfare, while others take on su ...

and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

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

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, 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