Abstract
During the first half of the twentieth century, aeronautic construction was distributed all over the industrialized world predominantly by the U.S. From the end of the Second World War to the 80's; the civil and military aviation industry was dominated by the U.S. and was strongly challenged by the Soviet Union in the context of the arms race.
During the 80's, Europe would succeed in establishing, through Airbus, an effective competitor in the domain of commercial transportation and would equal Boeing throughout the 90's. The domination of the United States can be explained by the size of their national market, but recently the EADS group has developed a new expansion and finds itself leader with about 52% market share.
The importance of investment and length of cycles needed to develop a new device has precipitated industrial grouping through buyouts and mergers. Foreign enterprises are abundant in France, whether European consortiums which implies french actors (EADS, ATR...) or independent subcontractors and suppliers.
