Aerospace Industry of France

According to the analysis done in the year 2008, France is the leading country in Europe that has a vertically developed Aerospace industry, which is worth around $15 billion. In recent years, other countries like the United Kingdom and Germany are gearing up, and observers predict that these players will overtake France in the field of the aerospace industry sometime in the near future. They claim that France’s aerospace industry is multifaceted. This is mainly because it has different branches, such as the development of passenger aircrafts for civil applications, jets for the defense forces, avionics, helicopters, weapons and other aeronautical projects.

Aerospace Influences

The aerospace industry in France is influenced by the European Aeronautical, Defense, and Space Company (EADS) and the French corporation Aerospatiale Matra, which has shares in EADS. The European Aeronautical, Defense and Space Company is a company jointly incorporated by the aerospace players from Germany, Spain and France in the beginning of the new millennium. Aerospatiale Matra serves as the representative of EADS in France. Aerospatiale Matra is involved not only in the development of the airbus and jets, but also in space crafts and sophisticated missiles. Besides Aerospatiale Matra, France has several enterprises of various sizes that are part of the Aerospace industry in France. The regions of Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees in the southeast are the primary locations in France where the major aerospace and related industries have been developed over the years. There are thousands of enterprises that are spread across these two regions of France. Apart from these manufacturers, there are aeronautical research and development institutes owned either by public or private organizations, aerospace universities and many different engineering colleges. Along with these, the French government has taken several new aerospace industry research and development initiatives for these regions to implement in the following years to boost the industry. This cluster of the aerospace industry of France generates employment for over 100,000 job seekers and seems to grow with the progress in the markets. This aerospace industrial cluster in France is also linked with other aerospace industry clusters from different developed nations in Europe. Some of the significant recent developments of the aerospace industry of France include the development of Airbus A3XX series, the A400M along with combat aircraft like Mirage F1, Mirage 2000, Mirage III and Mirage V.