GIFAS

GIFAS, the French aerospace industries association, has more than 300 members, from major prime contractors and system suppliers to small specialist companies.

They cover the full spectrum of skills from the design, development and production of aerospace systems and equipment to maintenance and operation.

Activities extend from civil and military aircraft and helicopters to engines, missiles and armament, satellites and launch vehicles, plus aerospace, defence and security major systems, equipment, subassemblies and associated software.

A century of industrial development

On 11 January 1908, a group of aviation pioneers, including Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Louis Blériot, Louis Breguet and Gabriel Voisin, felt the need to free themselves from the control of the automobile industry to confirm the vocation of heavier-than-air flight. They held a meeting at the Automobile-Club de France to discuss the possibility of setting up an association that aimed to bring "an industrial and commercial dimension to what had until then been considered merely a sport". The creation of the Chambre Syndicale des Industries Aéronautiques (CSIAé) was approved unanimously. Two days later, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, Henry Farman made the first flight over a kilometre in a closed loop.

At the same time, a number of aircraft manufacturers set up the Association des Industries de la Locomotion Aérienne organizing the first international aeronautical exhibition, which opened to widespread public acclaim at the Paris Grand Palais in the autumn of 1909.

At this stage, merging the two groups was a logical step. The merger took place in July 1910, with Robert Esnault-Pelterie and André Granet appointed chairman and secretary general respectively of the CSIAé, later to become Gifas.

In 1975, the association acquired the name Gifas, which stands for Groupement des Industries Françaises Aéronautiques et Spatiales

Today, Gifas has more than 366 members, from major prime contractors and system suppliers to small specialist companies. They cover the full spectrum of skills from the design, development and production of aerospace systems to marketing and maintenance and operation.

Gifas members are active in all sectors of the aerospace industry including civil and military aircraft, helicopters, engines, missiles and weapons, satellites and launch systems, UAV, large aerospace, defence and security systems, equipment, subassemblies and associated software applications.
Active members fall into three categories:

Prime contractors and large systems suppliers, including Airbus Group, Airbus, Airbus Defence & Space, Airbus Helicopters, ATR, Arianespace, Dassault Aviation, MBDA, Safran Group, Snecma Safran Group, Thales and Thales Alenia Space.

Onboard equipment manufacturers who are part of GEAD, including Daher-Socata, Goodrich Actuation Systems, Latécoère, Liebherr Aerospace Toulouse SAS, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, Ratier-Figeac, Sagem Safran Group, Stelia Aerospace, Zodiac Group Aerospace, etc.

SMEs belong to the AERO-PME Committee, a group set up specifically to defend the interests of French aerospace companies.