Sud Aviation was a French state-owned manufacturer of aircraft formed in 1957 from the merger of Sud-Est (SNCASE) and Sud-Ouest (SNCASO). Following the merger of these two nationalized companies, Sud Aviation began working on a Supersonic transport version of the Caravelle. In 1962, the company consorted with British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) to design and manufacture the Concorde . In 1970 Sud Aviation was merged into Aérospatiale with Nord Aviation.