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Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques (SABCA)
Belgian Aircraft Production Company

Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques (SABCA) [Belgian Aircraft Production Company] is one of the main aerospace companies in Belgium. The vast majority of the 2.400.000 shares belong since 1968 to two important players in the aerospace world : the French Dassault Group on one side and the Dutch Stork Group [Fokker] on the other side. SABCA customers and partners belong to the elite of the aerospace world and are spread worldwide. SABCA has built an extensive and varied know-how based on its 90+ years experience in designing, building and upgrading large and complex elements for aircraft and space launchers.

SABCA was founded in 1920 with the task of designing and building aircraft for the emerging air transport in Belgium. The plant was located on the Haren airport, located in the suburbs of Brussels. Several original designs were put on the market by the company before WW2, in parallel with the production under licence of numerous civil and military aircraft. After the war, SABCA became a major partner in most Belgian military aircraft production and upgrade programs like the Hunter, F-84, F-104G, Dassault Mirage 5, Lockheed F-16, Agusta 109 Helicopter, etc… A new plant was opened in 1955 on the Charleroi airport for that purpose.

In a move towards diversification in the field of high technologies, SABCA was among the early participants in the European space programs and has since more than 40 years designed and manufactured major elements of the European Spacelab and large parts of the Ariane and Vega launchers. On the civil aircraft side, SABCA had a slow start with the production of the outer wings of the Fokker 27/50 family, the flaps of the Dassault Mercure, the flaps again for the VFW-614 and other more or less successful projects. However, the civil aircraft activity really took a boost in 1989 when a first risk-sharing contract was signed with Airbus. Since that day, SABCA has been selected as a partner for all new Airbus programs, including the giant A380. SABCA also produces metallic and composite subassemblies for the Dassault and Gulfstream business jets programs.

By late 1959, Belgium and the Netherlands decided to integrate the F-104G into their aircraft inventories. They entered into an agreement with Germany to coproduce the F-104G in March 1960. The three countries agreed to produce 739 F-04Gs through this arrangement with 364 going to Germany, 200 going to the Netherlands and 175 going to Belgium. Companies in each of the three countries formed a consortium for this project and becare known as the Northern Group. This group consisted of the Belgium companies of Fairey, SABCA, and Fabrique Nationale d' Armes de Guerre; the German companies of Hamburger Flugzeugbau, Weser Flugzeugbau,and Foche-Wolfe; and the Netherlands companies of Fokker, Aviolanda, and Philips. Italy joined the other three F-104 manufaacturing countries later in 1960, thus forming the four-nation European Consortium.

Belgium is one of four original countries comprising the European Participating Governments (EPG) that launched the international co production of the F-16. The first European F-16 assembly line opened in 1978 in Belgium. The Belgian contractors were SABCA and SONACA for the airframe and Fabrique National (now Techspace Aero) for the engines. The Belgian company MBLE produced the F-16 radar for three of the four EPG nations. Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, SABCA and its technology partners SONACA and Fabrisys have continued to upgrade F-16s in Belgium through the Mid-Life Update (MLU) program. Lockheed Martin provided Belgian tactical fighters with advanced survivability through the Self-Protection Electronic Warfare Systems (SPEWS).

Belgium was one of two initially responsible for the European production of F-16s [the other being Fokker Schiphol, the Netherlands, the Turkish F-16 aircraft coproduction program being added later]. The primary Belgian contractor in the F-16 program was the Societe Anonyme Belge de Constructions Aeronautiques (SABCA), which was responsible for the final assembly of F-16s intended for both Belgian and Danish service. Fabrique National manufactured the F100 engines for the F-16s of all four nations in the European consortium.

Fairey SA of Belgium, one of the initial major F-16 European co-producers, was to manufacture components for U.S. and EPG aircraft and assemble 174 of the EPG aircraft. On 12 October 1977, Fairey Limited of London, the parent company of the Belgian coproducer, declared bankruptcy; and Fairey SA was forced into receivership although its manufacturing operations continued. In May 1978, a new corporation called Sonaca was formed to take over the military activities of the Fairey operation. Although the new corporation sustained operations, it fell behind schedule. In June 1978, the F-16 SPO Director designated a special team to review the Sonaca operations and make recommendations for improvement. The team noted areas of weakness in Sonaca's middle management, scheduling, and staffing.

In early 1978, the first European F-16 assembly line opened at SABCA, followed by the first flight of a Belgian-built F-16 in December 1978. The aircraft was accepted by the Belgian Air Force in January 1979. This was the first locally built F-16 to be delivered to a European operator. The original Belgian order was for 116 F-16 aircraft. Beginning in September 1981, 35 early-production Belgian F-16s were rotated back through the SABCA factory for cockpit modifications and avionics updates. The modifications effectively brought the aircraft to Block 10 standards. Delivery of these first 116 aircraft to the Belgian Air Force was completed in May 1985. A follow-on order of 44 Block 15 Operations Capability Upgrade (OCU) aircraft was placed in February 1983 and delivered between 1987 and 1991.

SABCA was founded in 1920 with the task of designing and building aircraft for the emerging air transport in Belgium. The plant was located on the Haren airport, located in the suburbs of Brussels. Several original designs were put on the market by the company before WW2, in parallel with the production under licence of numerous civil and military aircraft.

After the war, SABCA became a major partner in most Belgian military aircraft production and upgrade programs like the Hunter, F-84, F-104G, Dassault Mirage 5, Lockheed F-16, Agusta 109 Helicopter, etc… A new plant was opened in 1955 on the Charleroi airport for that purpose.

In a move towards diversification in the field of high technologies, SABCA was among the early participants in the European space programs and has since more than 40 years designed and manufactured major elements of the European Spacelab and large parts of the Ariane and Vega launchers.

On the civil aircraft side, SABCA had a slow start with the production of the outer wings of the Fokker 27/50 family, the flaps of the Dassault Mercure, the flaps again for the VFW-614 and other more or less successful projects. However, the civil aircraft activity really took a boost in 1989 when a first risk-sharing contract was signed with Airbus. Since that day, SABCA has been selected as a partner for all new Airbus programs, including the giant A380, the A400M and the new A350 XWB. SABCA also designs and produces metallic and composite subassemblies for the Dassault (900/2000/7X and SMS) and Gulfstream business jets programs.

Several types of military aircraft and helicopters find a home at SABCA's Charleroi plant for heavy maintenance, repairs or major upgrades. SABCA's large hangars provide a direct access to the 2500 m long runway and can hold more than 15 aircraft at a time. Locally based engineering office provides cost effective solutions for upgrades of the structure, navigation and weapon avionics, power generation, chaff and flares and other systems integration. Work is performed in collaboration with companies like Dassault, Lockheed-Martin, Safran, Sagem and others. More than 12 Air Forces around the world are regular customers of the SABCA Charleroi plant.

SABCA is a leading Belgian Aerospace company since almost 92 years, employing 1000 highly trained persons. SABCA is active in civil aircraft design and manufacture (Airbus, Dassault, Gulfstream), military aircraft overhaul and upgrades (F16, F5, Mirage, helicopters, etc…) as well as in space programs (Ariane and Vega). These activities cover structural work as well as Thrust Vectoring Control systems and systems integration.