Introduction

Large-scale cooperation among aerospace manufacturers first became widespread in Western Europe, where the relatively small size of the companies induced them to seek partners earlier than their larger American counterparts. International cooperation within Europe became a means of increasing the size of the potential markets for the aircraft produced. Building upon the successes of the early European cooperative programs, several American firms joined with European partners to form transatlantic ventures. In the domain of civil aircraft, partners such as Saab and Fairchild cooperated to pool financial and technical resources and to broaden access to commercial markets on both sides of the ocean. Outside Europe and North America, the impetus for international cooperation has usually been the aspiration of less technologically advanced nations to acquire aerospace technology through partnerships with Western firms. Because different cooperative programs had different objectives, their success or failure should be evaluated on different criteria.