Internationalization

In the 1960s the high development cost of wide-body jets started a trend toward international risk sharing and cost sharing in aircraft development. American firms sought foreign partners because international cooperation was not subject to antitrust regulations and provided an excellent entry into overseas markets. This kind of partnership proved particularly important for nationalized airlines that preferred to purchase aircraft whose construction involved, at least in some way, their own domestic aerospace industry. Collaboration on an international scale also was attractive in that it lessened the possibility of a participant’s canceling a project before completion, as many agreements had penalty clauses to discourage premature pullout and political pressure could be exerted from other team members. In 1969 there were worldwide about 10 cooperative ventures among manufacturers (both airframe and engine); by 1992 the number had risen close to 50.

In 1965 the French and German governments initiated discussions about forming a consortium to build a European high-capacity short-haul airliner. The outcome was Airbus Industrie, formed in 1970 as a Groupement d’Intérêt Economique (GIE; “Grouping of Mutual Economic Interest”), a unique and flexible form of partnership instituted by French law, in which the partners have a dual role as both shareholders and industrial participants. Later other European countries joined Airbus, resulting in the following distribution of ownership: Aerospatiale Matra (France) and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa; Germany) with 37.9 percent each, BAE Systems (Great Britain) with 20 percent, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. (CASA; Spain) with 4.2 percent. In 2000 all the partners except BAE Systems merged into the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which thus came to own 80 percent of Airbus. Belairbus (Belgium) and Alenia (Italy) participated in some projects.

Airbus Industrie’s premier aircraft, which entered service in 1974, was the A300—the world’s first twin-engine wide-body jetliner. The consortium’s next airliner, the A310 (entered service in 1983), introduced many new concepts, among them a two-pilot cockpit (in which the duties of a third crew member, the flight engineer, were performed by computers) and extensive use of composite materials for the airframe. Its third product, the A320 (1988), was the first subsonic commercial aircraft to be designed with fly-by-wire (electric rather than mechanical) primary controls and the first commercial aircraft to feature the so-called glass cockpit, which used electronic rather than mechanical displays. Through its innovations and the growing range of aircraft offered, the European consortium became the second largest maker of commercial aircraft worldwide, deferring only to Boeing while relegating McDonnell Douglas to a distant third place by the mid 1990s (prior to its merger with Boeing in 1997). Although Airbus aircraft used many American-manufactured components, the program gave a tremendous boost to European aircraft suppliers.

Europe’s growing involvement in space activities provided another opportunity for international cooperation. In 1962 six western European countries and Australia signed a convention leading to the formation of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) to develop the experimental heavy-lift satellite launcher Europa, based on the British Blue Streak and French Coralie rockets. A parallel effort set the stage for the establishment of the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), devoted to scientific space programs and the construction of satellites. In the summer of 1972 the French government proposed to other European countries a new and technologically simpler launcher. The 5th European Space Conference in December 1972 proved to be a landmark for the development of a European space industry. It approved the L-3S launcher, later named Ariane, with France as a project leader, and sanctioned Spacelab, a crewed research laboratory to be carried in the cargo bay of a U.S. space shuttle, this project to be led by Germany. On an organizational level it merged the parallel activities of ELDO and ESRO under the umbrella of a single organization, the European Space Agency (ESA), which came into existence in 1975.

The Ariane program involved nearly 50 companies from 11 European countries, with France’s Aerospatiale providing strong leadership. The initial version of Ariane was first launched successfully on December 24, 1979, beginning a new era in Europe. To finance and operate the Ariane rocket and to commercialize space launch services with it, ESA set up Arianespace in March 1980 and gave it responsibility for operating the launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana. Its shareholders were 36 of the principal European aerospace firms, primarily those involved in actually building the rocket, as well as 13 major European bank groups and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). Subsequently the Ariane series became the world’s most successful commercial expendable launch vehicles.

Spacelab, the second major European program, was developed by German companies in cooperation with manufacturers from Italy, France, Britain, and six other European countries. Taken into Earth orbit in the payload bay of a space shuttle, the laboratory consisted of two separate segments: a pressurized 16-ton module in which astronauts could work and supervise experiments in a shirtsleeve environment and a pallet for external payloads. Spacelab made its maiden voyage in November 1983 and more than a dozen flights thereafter.

Following the lead of the flagships of international cooperation—Airbus and Ariane—many other civil and military programs were established that involved two or more companies from different countries. In 1969 European manufacturers Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, British Aircraft Corporation, and Aeritalia (predecessor of Alenia) founded Panavia Aircraft, while European engine makers Motoren- und Turbinen-Union (MTU), Rolls-Royce, and Fiat incorporated Turbo-Union. The result of this joint effort was the successful Panavia Tornado, a multirole combat aircraft that entered service in 1980. Other European cooperations produced the French-British Jaguar fighter and the French-German Alpha Jet trainer, which entered service in 1972 and 1979, respectively. A later example, first flown in 1995, is the military transport helicopter NH-90, developed by Aerospatiale (France), DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa; Germany), and Agusta (Italy). When Boeing developed the 777 in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the company for the first time offered full partnership to some subcontractors; Japanese firms held a 20 percent share in the airframe structure and also shared market and program risks.

In the commercial engine sector, General Electric Aircraft Engines in the United States and France’s SNECMA established a joint venture, called CFM International, in 1974 for production of the widely sold CFM56 turbofan engine. International Aero Engines (IAE), formed in 1983 as a collaboration of the American firm Pratt & Whitney, Germany’s MTU, Britain’s Rolls-Royce, Italy’s FiatAvio, and a Japanese consortium, Japanese Aero Engines Corporation, produced the V2500 turbofan.

Mergers and divestitures

With a decline in defense funding and a narrowing of commercial markets in the decades following World War II, the number of business opportunities shrank, and competition for each project became more intense. In response, aerospace companies sought mergers as a way to integrate strengths, to combine talent and other resources, and to reduce costs by eliminating redundancies in administrative functions, personnel, and physical facilities. Previous competitors having complementary capabilities joined forces to expand product lines and, in some cases, to offer a more comprehensive system of services and products to potential customers.

In the 1960s, American manufacturers went through a first wave of mergers. Martin joined forces in 1961 with the nonaerospace materials firm American Marietta to form Martin Marietta Corp. Similarly, North American Aviation sought a nonaerospace partner and merged with automobile-parts supplier Rockwell Standard to form North American Rockwell Corporation (later Rockwell International Corporation) in 1967. In the same year, military manufacturer McDonnell Aircraft merged with the largely civil manufacturer Douglas Aircraft to form the balanced enterprise McDonnell Douglas Corporation. Another move involved Bell Aircraft’s becoming a part of Textron Inc. in 1960.

A second series of American divestitures and mergers began in the early 1990s. General Dynamics sold its general aviation aircraft maker, Cessna, to Textron Inc., its missile business to the Hughes Electronics subsidiary of General Motors, its tactical fighter business to Lockheed, and its space systems division to Martin Marietta. Ford and IBM also left the aerospace-defense sector by selling their divisions to Loral in 1992 and 1994, respectively. General Electric maintained its GE Aircraft Engines subsidiary, but its aerospace division became the property of Martin Marietta in 1993. In 1994 and 1995, four well-known airframe manufacturers merged into two. Lockheed combined with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Northrop acquired the ailing Grumman Corporation and later the Vought Aircraft division of LTV Corporation to create Northrop Grumman Corporation. In late 1996 Boeing acquired Rockwell International’s space and defense units, and in 1997 it merged with McDonnell Douglas to establish the world’s largest aerospace company. In the same year, Lockheed Martin announced its intention to acquire Northrop Grumman, but, in the face of objections from the U.S. Department of Defense that such a merger would result in an overconcentration of defense electronics in a single company and the threat of a federal antitrust suit, the acquisition plan was abandoned. This consolidation reduced the number of prime American aerospace companies to only two—Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In October 2000 Boeing acquired three units from Hughes Electronics—Hughes Space and Communications Company, Hughes Electron Dynamics, and Spectrolab—and Hughes’s interest in HRL Laboratories, the company’s primary research facility. These elements were combined into new subsidiary, Boeing Satellite Systems.

In the general aviation sector, most small American manufacturers lost their independence in the 1980s and ’90s and became parts of large industrial conglomerates. Beech became a subsidiary of Raytheon Company, and Cessna, as noted earlier, was acquired by Textron. Canada’s Bombardier acquired business jet makers Learjet and Canadair, as well as De Havilland Canada and Britain’s Short Brothers.

In Europe the changes were perhaps even more dramatic. In Britain, 12 companies, including well-known firms such as De Havilland, Bristol, and Supermarine were combined in a series of mergers in the 1950s and early ’60s. The resulting two manufacturers were British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Aviation. In 1977 these two companies and two others were taken into public ownership and reorganized as British Aerospace (BAe). In 1999 BAe signed an agreement with General Electric Company PLC (GEC) in which GEC would divest itself of its defense electronics business, Marconi Electronic Systems, which would then merge with BAe. The resulting company became BAE Systems.

In France, Sud Aviation, Nord Aviation, and SEREB merged in 1970 as Aerospatiale to form the country’s strongest aerospace firm, while Dassault absorbed Breguet Aviation in 1971. In 1999 Aerospatiale merged with Matra Hautes Technologies, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, to form Aerospatiale Matra. Germany followed Britain and France in creating a national “aerospace champion.” Beginning in 1985, luxury-car maker Daimler-Benz (later DaimlerChrysler) acquired the aerospace group Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), Dornier, and other companies to form Deutsche Aerospace, which subsequently was renamed DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa).

The national consolidation of German aerospace companies was followed in 1990 by the merger of the space activities of France’s Matra Espace and Britain’s Marconi Space Systems to create Matra Marconi Space. The latter increased in size in 1994 with the acquisition of British Aerospace Space Systems. In May 2000 Matra Marconi Space and the space divisions of Dasa were combined in a joint venture under the name Astrium, 50 percent of which was owned by Aerospatiale Matra and BAE Systems and 50 percent by Dasa. Astrium was the first trinational space company, with facilities in France, Germany, and Great Britain. Its activities covered the whole spectrum of the space business, from ground systems and launch vehicles to satellites and orbital infrastructure. Two months later, in July, Aerospatiale Matra, Dasa, and Spain’s Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. (CASA) merged to create the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS). With central offices in France and Germany, EADS at its formation became the third largest aerospace company in the world (after Boeing and Lockheed Martin).

In the United States and Europe, national governments played quite different roles in the mergers involving their countries. The U.S. government scrutinized each proposed merger for antitrust and anti-competition infringements and, in some cases, denied the merger, most notably that proposed by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. It approved the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas with the recognition that survival of McDonnell Douglas’s commercial business on its own was questionable and that one strong supplier could compete more successfully with the European Airbus consortium and maintain a favourable balance of trade. By contrast, national governments in Europe, once they overcame concerns about national pride and prestige, generally encouraged mergers in order to enhance Europe’s combined ability to supply its economic union with products and compete with the United States for commercial and defense contracts. In addition, the critical mass afforded by these mergers provided a basis for negotiating with the United States for European roles in major aerospace projects such as the International Space Station.

The aerospace industry of the former Soviet Union, particularly the defense and space sectors, absorbed a significant portion of the country’s overall budget. Following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, its design bureaus, which were confined to Russia and Ukraine, represented the resources for the development of all aircraft and space systems. They stayed largely intact, continuing to develop advanced products while making individual partnering and marketing arrangements for aerospace vehicles and technology with the industries of Western countries, China, and India. At the same time, they supplied a dwindling market in Middle Eastern client states such as Syria and Iraq. At the start of the 21st century, negotiations were under way with the aim of merging the aircraft-oriented and space-oriented bureaus into single corporations.

Recognizing the competitive status of its military aircraft and space launchers in the world market, Russia, in conjunction with those former Soviet republics having aircraft and space-related facilities, sustained these activities despite countervailing economic pressures. It successfully marketed MiG and Sukhoy fighters to Third World countries and formed partnerships with American and European firms in new aircraft and satellite-launcher ventures and with NASA in its crewed space program—in particular, the joint effort on the International Space Station. It should also be noted that as the Soviet Union developed advanced military aircraft in the 1970s and ’80s, earlier designs such as the MiG-25 series were licensed for production to Eastern bloc partners such as Poland and the German Democratic Republic. Even older designs of the 1950s, the MiG-17 and MiG-19, were made available to China, which developed its own industry around versions of these aircraft. (For additional information on Russian design bureaus, see Energia; Tupolev.)