SONACA ( Société Nationale de Construction Aérospatiale SA ) is a Belgian company which in 1979 received its name after its parent company Fairey fell into financial heavy in 1977 and the Belgian government felt compelled to take over its Belgian subsidiary Avions Fairey at Gosselies. This was done partly to calm social unrest but also to keep the licensed production of the F-16 secure. SONACA is still largely owned by the Walloon Government .
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From 1979 to 1991 SONACA produced 220 F-16 for both the Belgian and the Danish Air Force. In 1979 SONACA joined Belairbus for manufacturing parts for Airbus .
In 1990, in spite of difficulties SONACA became the partner of the Brazilian Embraer Regional Jet program.
In 2000 SONACA opened a subsidiary near EMBRAER called SOBRAER in Brazil's Sao Jose Dos Campos, where people mainly engaged in the manufacture of fuselage parts.
Since 2004, SOMACA in also has two companies in Sao Jose Dos Campos engaged in supplying small aircraft parts, namely PESOLA and SOPEÇAERO.
Since 2003 SONACA also has a plant in Mirabel, Quebec , Canada, and Wichita, Kansas , where mainly U.S. wing panels allows for various aircraft manufacturers, including Bombardier and IAI.
From 2005 SONACA was again struggling with financial problems. This time it tried to compensate with layoffs and the relocation of labor-intensive production to Brazil.
Today, the Belgian branch of SONACA mainly engaged in the manufacture of wing components for Airbus, Dassault, EMBREAR, Grob and Eagle B-Hunter UAV.