The EADS Group history

The seeds of pan-Europeanism that ultimately led to the creation of EADS go back at least to 1965, when Germany and France began making plans for what would ultimately become the Airbus series of airliners.

In 1970 Aerospatiale became a founding partner of Airbus, in which it first held a 50 percent share and later a 37.9 percent stake.

CASA joined the Airbus consortium in 1971.

CASA focused on collaborative programs as part of its turnaround following massive losses in 1987.

Creation of DASA: 1989

In 1992 Matra merged with the French media company Hachette to become, as Matra Hautes Technologies, part of the Lagardère Group.

The missile activities of Matra and British Aerospace (later BAE Systems) were combined in 1996 in a 50-50 joint venture named Matra BAe Dynamics.

In 1997 Jurgen Schrempp, CEO of DaimlerChrysler, and DASA CEO Manfred Bischoff, initiated the efforts to keep DASA, at $9 billion a year a relatively small player, from being swept into insignificance.

In 1998 the French government announced a plan to partially privatize Aerospatiale and combine it with Matra Hautes Technologies.

As a whole, the EADS companies lost a collective $940 million (pro forma) in 1999 in spite of Airbus Industrie's $1 billion operating profit.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), major European aerospace company that builds commercial and military aircraft, space systems, propulsion systems, missiles, and other defense products. It was formed in 2000 from the merger of three leading European aerospace firms: Aerospatiale Matra of France, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) of Germany, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A. (CASA) of Spain.

Airbus changed from a loose consortium ("Groupement d'Interet Economique") to an integrated company in January 2001.

In the works was a "superjumbo" 600- to 800-seat airliner--dubbed the A380--being prepared for a first flight in 2005.