Safran Helicopter Engines
aircraft engine manufacturer in France
Safran Helicopter Engines, previously known as Turbomeca, is a French manufacturer of low- and medium-power gas turbine turboshaft engines for helicopters. The company also produces gas turbine engines for aircraft and missiles, as well as turbines for land, industrial and marine applications.
Since its founding as Turbomeca in 1938, Safran Helicopter Engines has produced over 72,000 turbines. In its early years, it benefitted greatly from a rearmament programme conducted by the French state; operations were disrupted by the occupation of France during the Second World War, but the company survived and rebuilt quickly during the immediate postwar years. Prominent successes during the Cold War include the use of its Artouste II turboshaft engine to power the new Sud Aviation Alouette II helicopter (the first production turbine-powered helicopter in the world) as well as its involvement in Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Limited (a joint venture with British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce Ltd that produced turbojet and turboshaft engines).
In September 2001, the French aerospace specialist SNECMA Group acquired the company, after which it was rebranded as Safran Helicopter Engines. The company states that it has more than 2,500 customers in 155 countries. Safran Helicopter Engines has 15 sites and operates on each continent, providing its customers with a proximity service through 44 distributors and certified maintenance centers, 18 Repair & Overhaul Centers, and 90 Field Representatives and Field Technicians. Safran Helicopter Engines subsidiary Safran Power Units is the leading European manufacturer of turbojet engines for missiles, drones and auxiliary power units. Safran Helicopter Engines has 6,300 employees worldwide, with 5000 based in France.
The public source identifies “Safran Helicopter Engines” as aircraft engine manufacturer in France. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Safran, Helicopter and Engines.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1849871. VIAF identifies the subject as 123346692. The Library of Congress control number is n2002018377. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Safran Helicopter Engines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.