Groupe Latécoère

The Groupe Latécoère is an aircraft company based in Toulouse, France.[1] Founded by Pierre-Georges Latécoère in 1917, the company was known in the past particularly for its seaplanes. Today, the group is a major supplier of sections of aircraft fuselage and doors and is the second-largest European supplier of onboard electrical wire harnesses and avionics bays with its Latelec subsidiary company.

The group is currently a member of the CAC Small 90, and participates in all segments of aeronautics: commercial aircraft with Airbus and Boeing, regional planes with Embraer and Bombardier, business aircraft with Dassault Aviation, and military aircraft with Dassault and Airbus.

In 2000, Groupe Latécoère bought the Czech aircraft company Letov Kbely.

In 2006, the group employed 3,412 people and its annual sales were worth 432 million.

Aircraft products

aircraft marked * were projects only

Missile products for the French Navy

Current products

Source

Current leadership

Recently

Official Opening of Latecoere’s aerospace factory in Mexico

Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, (March 27, 2014) – The State Governor of Sonora, Guillermo Padres Elias, Frédéric Michelland, President of Latecoere, and Eric Gillard, Chief Executive Officer of Latecoere, jointly offered a ceremony for the inauguration of their new manufacturing facility in Hermosillo, Sonora.

The 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, which already employs over 250 people, currently produces on-board wiring systems for Airbus and fully assembles the Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger doors.

In popular culture

The name Latécoère is part of a "mystique" in France around the beginning of aviation and adventurers. It is part of a famous song by Henri Salvador, "Jardin d'Hiver", in its 3rd verse :

"Je voudrais du Fred Astaire
Revoir un Latécoère
Je voudrais toujours te plaire
Dans mon jardin d'hiver"

A possibly even more popular (and arguably very gross) reference is found in Lola Rastaquouère, a song by Serge Gainsbourg, a famous and controversial French artist:

"Comment oses-tu me parler d'amour toi, hein
Toi qui n'as pas connu Lola Rastaquouère
Je lui faisais le plein comme au Latécoère
Qui décolle en vibrant vers les cieux africains"

Latécoère is mentioned by name in the first sentence of Antoine de Saint Exupéry's famous autobiographical work, Wind, Sand, and Stars, (1936) - from the English translation:

"In 1926 I was enrolled as student airline pilot by the Latécoère Company, the predecessors of Aéropostale (now Air France) in the operation of the line between Toulouse, in southwestern France, and Dakar, in French West Africa."

References

  1. "Terms and Conditions." Groupe Latécoère. Retrieved on 13 June 2012. "135, rue Périole BP 25211 31079 TOULOUSE CEDEX 5" - Access

External links

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