Nord Aviation

Company type	State-owned
Industry	Aviation
Predecessor	SFECMAS · SNCAN
Founded	1 October 1954; 71 years ago (1954-10-01)
Defunct	1 March 1970 (1970-03-01)
Fate	Merged intoAérospatiale
Headquarters	Bourges , France

Société nationale de constructions aéronautiques Nord Aviation (lit. 'National Aeronautical Construction Company North Aviation') was a state-ownedFrenchaircraft manufacturer. The bulk of its facilities were based at theBourges airport in central France.

On 1 October 1954, Nord Aviation was created as a result of the merger ofSFECMAS andSNCAN. The company's name,Nord, also became commonly used as a generic name referring to thePingouin light aircraft. It manufactured numerous aircraft; perhaps Nord Aviation's most successful aircraft was theNord Noratlas, a utility transport used by both military and civilian customers. Other aircraft includedgeneral aviation,trainers andexperimental aircraft, as well as other transports. Nord Aviation also developed and produced its own range ofmissiles; perhaps the most famous of these was theExocet, a sea-skimminganti-ship missile.

On 1 March 1970, Nord Aviation merged withSud Aviation andSEREB to form the 'Société nationale d'industrie aérospatiale (SNIAS), which would soon after be renamedAérospatiale.

Following the end of theSecond World War, France's aviation industries began to rebuild and reestablish themselves; many companies chose to consolidate and merge with one another during this period. On 1 October 1954, Nord Aviation was created as a result of the acquisition ofSFECMAS (Société française d'étude et de construction de matériels aéronautiques spéciaux) bySNCAN (Société nationale de constructions aéronautiques du Nord).

A year prior to the company's creation, the development of what can be regarded as perhaps Nord Aviation's most successful aircraft, theNord Noratlas, had been completed. Nord continued the programme to schedule, fulfilling its initial contract for 34 aircraft by 25 June 1953; theArmée de l'Air went on to order another 174 Noratlases. Eventually, a total of 228 aircraft would enter French service.^[1] In addition to this sizeable domestic appetite, the Noratlas was an export success as well; the newly formed nation ofWest Germany decided to address theGerman Air Force's requirement for new transport aircraft by ordering a total of 187 Noratlases, the first of which were delivered during 1956.^[1] While the first 25 aircraft were manufactured in France, the remaining 161 Noratlases were locally manufactured by the West German-basedFlugzeugbau Nord company; such aircraft were designated asN-2501D.^[2] Flugzeugbau Nord had been involved in the Noratlas programme from an early stage, it being the company's first post-war aviation project, having been responsible for the design and manufacture of the majority of the aircraft's fuselage.^[3] In addition to these and other military customers, the Noratlas was also manufactured for the civil market, including a specialised de-militarised model designatedN-2502A/B.^[4]

Several of Nord Aviation's aircraft never progressed beyond theexperimental stage of development. One of the more radical designs was theNord 1500 Griffon, aramjet-poweredfighter aircraft developed during the mid-1950s to meet a French Air Force specification for aMach 2fighter. Two prototypes were ordered initially in a letter dated 24 August 1953, with the final contract, (No. 2003/55) in 1955; although intended to eventually fulfil a requirement for a light interceptor capable of operation from 1,000m grass runways, the two prototypes were ordered without military equipment for research purposes only.^[5] Production of the envisioned operational versions, often referred to as theSuper Griffon, did not take place as it was found that the requirements could be met and exceeded with less complex and cheaper aircraft such as the more conventionalDassault Mirage III.^[6]

In addition to its range of aircraft, Nord Aviation also developed and manufactured a range ofmissiles; perhaps the most famous of these was theExocet, a sea-skimminganti-ship missile. Development was started by Nord during 1967 under the designation ofMM 38; its basic body design was based on theAS-30 air-to-ground tactical missile. The air-launched version of the Exocet was developed during the 1970s, it entered service with theFrench Navy in 1979.^[7] The missile gained a level of infamy for its use during theFalklands War of 1982, in which several British ships were damaged or sunk by Exocets launched byArgentinian forces. Both theRoyal NavydestroyerHMS Sheffield and the 15,000-ton merchant shipAtlantic Conveyor were lost to use of the Exocet.^[8] Separately, an American frigate, theUSS Stark, was also damaged by two Exocet missiles launched by anIraqi Air ForceDassault Mirage F1 while patrolling off the coast ofSaudi Arabia.^[9]

On 1 March 1970, Nord Aviation merged withSud Aviation to create Société nationale d'industrie aérospatiale (SNIAS), which was promptly renamedAérospatiale. In turn, this company would ultimately merge into European aerospace corporationEADS in 2000, which was subsequently rebranded as theAirbus Group.

Data from:Aviafrance SNCAN^[10] andAviafrance Nord^[11]

• AA.20
• AS-20
• AS-30
• SS.10
• SS.11
• SS.12/AS.12
• Exocet

• Media related toNord Aviation at Wikimedia Commons
• Nord Aviation aircraft by Aviafrance

• Aérospatiale
• Defunct aircraft manufacturers of France
• Defunct helicopter manufacturers
• Helicopter manufacturers of France
• French companies established in 1954
• Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1954
• Technology companies established in 1954
• Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1970
• 1970 disestablishments in France
• 1970 mergers and acquisitions
• Technology companies disestablished in 1970

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox company with a logo from wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata