Samsung Aerospace Ind., Ltd. (SSA; ) was a South Korean

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

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 Empire won, Korean won. Appearance Its appearance is "W" (the first letter of "Won") with a horizontal strike ...

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

Changwon Changwon (; ) is the capital and largest city of South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea (with a population of 1,025,702 ), and the 11th largest city of the South Korea, country. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south, and the ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province (, ) 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 Heritage Site Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple tha ...

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

camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

s and lead frames, 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 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 ...

, but the plan was scrapped because of the economic problems emerging in South Korea in the late 90s. The company changed its name to

Samsung Techwin Hanwha Vision (), founded as Samsung Techwin, is a video surveillance company. It is a subsidiary of Hanwha Group. The company employs 1,822 people and is headquartered in South Korea. Its total sales in 2020 were 529.8 billion South Korean w ...

in March 2000 after its aircraft division was merged into

Korea Aerospace Industries Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd. (KAI; ) is a South Korean aerospace and defense manufacturer. It was originally established as a joint venture of Daewoo Heavy Industries' aerospace division, Samsung Aerospace, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft ...

(KAI) along with

Daewoo Heavy Industries Doosan Enerbility Co., Ltd., (a combination of words Energy and Sustainability) formerly known as Doosan Heavy Industries, is a heavy industrial company headquartered in Changwon, South Korea. It was established in 1962. Its business includes ...

and Hyundai Space and Aircraft in 1999.

Business activity

Its business activity comprised the production and repair of jet engines, including assembly of the GE J85, CFM56, LM2500 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 RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

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

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, produced stringers for

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

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, United States as well as commercial heli ...

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, Samsung Aerospace Industries (now Korea Aerospace Industries). It has been replaced in production by the large ...

. They also cooperated with

Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (also (Zhukovsky) Central Institute of Aerodynamics, , TsAGI) is a Russian national research centre for aviation. It was founded in Moscow by Russian aviation pioneer Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky on Decemb ...

in the development of

composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...

s for aircraft. In the early 1990s, SSA provided major assemblies and mate through delivery of

F-16 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 ...

s for the

Republic of Korea Air Force The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF; ), also known as the ROK Air Force or South Korean Air Force, is the Air force, aerial and Space force, space warfare service branch of South Korea, operating under the Ministry of National Defense (South K ...

from its plant in

Sacheon Sacheon (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Sacheon's chief fame comes from its being the site of two naval battles in the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), Seven Year War. ...

under license to

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

. South Korea and the US jointly developed the

KAI T-50 Golden Eagle The KAI T-50 Golden Eagle () is the first South Korean supersonic advanced jet trainer, light combat aircraft, and light strike-fighter developed by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) with Lockheed Martin. It is South Korea's first indigenous ...

via a joint venture between SSA and Lockheed Martin, originally conceived as the KTX-2.

References

External links

* Former Samsung subsidiaries Aircraft manufacturers of South Korea Manufacturing companies of South Korea South Korean companies established in 1977 Defunct aircraft manufacturers of South Korea 1999 mergers and acquisitions Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1999 {{SouthKorea-company-stub