SONACA's core business consists of design, development, manufacturing, assembly and testing of aerospace structures, and their associated systems. In 2003, the company counted 1670 people for a turnover of about 210 MEUR. SONACA's main qualifications include AQAP-110, ISO 9001-2000, JAR/FAR145 and BCAR.

From 1978 onwards, SONACA played an active role in the co-production of a revolutionary fighter aircraft, to become a world success: the F-16. The company produced more than 1350 Aft Fuselage sections, assembled more than 220 airframes and is still an appreciated supplier of LOCKHEED MARTIN for the manufacturing of last generation F-16.

Latest defence programmes for SONACA are the B-HUNTER Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) through the EAGLE consortium, and the AIRBUS A400 M, the next-generation military transport aircraft formally launched in December 2001 through FLABEL. SONACA will develop and produce the Wing Leading Edges with their anti-ice system, and the Main Landing Gear Doors.

In the early eighties, SONACA entered through BELAIRBUS into a long-lasting relationship with AIRBUS, as single source designer and supplier of the wing leading edge slats for all AIRBUS types from the A310 onwards. The present types are classically grouped in two families: the Narrow Bodies (A320, 318, 319, 321) and the large aircraft (A330 and A340 including the latest A340-600 variant, with 385 passengers and ultra long range of 14000 km).

In parallel with the production of the present types, SONACA takes an active share to the development of the AIRBUS A380 ultra-high capacity aircraft, to largest airliner of the world. In addition to the wing slats, SONACA is also responsible for the Nose Upper Shell, a large structure on the upper front fuselage.

SONACA has another strong position in the civil aircraft business, with its partnership with EMBRAER on its remarkable regional jet aircraft family, started with the EMBRAER ERJ-145.

In 1993, the company decided to become a risk-sharing partner of this aircraft development and production for which SONACA produces the fixed leading edges and associated de-icing, the central and rear fuselages with engine pylons.

In 1999, SONACA signed with EMBRAER a risk-sharing partnership contract on the newly launched Embraer 170/190 for which SONACA has developed and produces slat / slat tracks, large CF2 central fuselage panels, and other subassemblies of this section. In 2000, the Brazilian subsidiary SOBRAER was created, fully-owned by SONACA. Counting about 100 employees, this unit performs final assembly and finishing operations in close vicinity of EMBRAER.

On 20 November 2003, SONACA confirmed its internationalisation strategy by acquisition of NMF, the north American specialist company in forming of wing panels for regional transport A/C and business jets. SONACA NMF America and SONACA NMF Canada will expend SONACA’s customer base to the 4 major civil aircraft suppliers in the world. SONACA NMF Canada manufactures and assemble the wing panels of the Bombardier Aéronautique A/C : CRJ200, CRJ700 & CRJ900.

Globally, SONACA is an appreciated partner to civil aircraft programs covering the whole spectrum of airliners, from 37 to 550 seats. The business jet segment is also covered by DASSAULT subcontracts for Falcon 900, and partnership for the development and production of the leading edge slats of the Falcon 7X.

SONACA, thanks to its north American subsidiaries, produces the wing panels of the Learjet Business jet, BOMBARDIER Aéronautique Challenger and 100, 150 and 200 Gulfstream Jets for IAI.

With an engineering workforce of about 250 engineers, SONACA is recognised as a world-class source for design and development of leading edge technologies. Substantial design and fabrication know-how has been accumulated in specific areas such as anti-icing systems, damage-tolerance, fatigue and impact justification.

Its designers participate to the HYLTEC and ALTTA European research on hybrid laminar flow control (HLFC) technology; its manufacturing engineers develop advanced processes such as Super-Plastic Forming / Diffusion Bonding (SPF/DB) for metals and advanced resin transfer moulding (RTM) for high-performance composites.

SONACA is also actively involved in Space applications, participating to several ESA and CNES programmes. These applications cover satellite (development, manufacturing and tests of the equipment platform of SPOT5 and COROT), Space infrastructure (COLUMBUS Starboard Meteoritic and Debris Protection System, FCE CFRP structure). Other specialized products are the ultralight Frontshield CFRP structure for the BEAGLE 2 science mission, which landed on Mars planet on 25 December 2003.

Furthermore, SONACA supplies components for many other aerospace companies. Amongst them, ALENIA, DASSAULT, EADS, GAMESA, LATECOERE, LOCKHEED, MAN-T, SABCA and SHORTS all benefit from its outstanding range of production facilities and skills, for both metallic and advanced composite applications.