ADVANCED AEROSPACE STRUCTURES S
onaca was formed in 1977 when the British company Fairey Aviation went into receivership. Following this company’s demise it was taken into public ownership by the Belgian Government in order to secure the licensed production of the new F-16 fighter aircraft. From 1979 until 1991 Sonaca produced over 200 F-16 fighters for the Belgian and Danish air forces. in parallel, Sonaca has built a strong slat production partnership with Airbus for the A310 and the successful A320 family. In the early 1990s 24 Industry Europe
it became the major partner in the Brazilian Embraer Regional Jet programme. Since 2003 Sonaca has operated a modern manufacturing facility in Quebec, Canada, as well as in Wichita, Kansas, where it is focused on producing wing panels for aviation companies such as Bombardier and IAI/Gulfstream. More recently in 2011, Sonaca established an assembly facility in Tainjin, China, which is strategically located only a short distance from the new Airbus production plant. Today, in addition to its 100,000 square metre facility
Sonaca is a global leader in the design and manufacture of large aluminium and composite structures for the aviation industry. Philip Yorke talked to Marcel Devresse, the company’s director of marketing and operations, about its on-going investments in Asia and Brazil and the new hightech products being developed for Airbus and Embraer.
located at its headquarters in southern Belgium, the company operates state-of-the-art production facilities in Brazil,Canada, the USA and China. Currently Sonaca employs more than 2300 people worldwide and in 2013 the group recorded sales of over €360 million.
Leading in advanced aerospace structures Sonaca’s core business is centred around the development, manufacture and assembly of aerospace structures and their
