The French aerospace industry had a mixedyear in 1986, with military sales hit by the falling dollar and
lower oil and raw material prices but the civilian sector
performing better, Jacques Benichou, president of the the
French aeronautics and space industries group (GIFAS) said.
    He told journalists here that the sales success of the
European Airbus Industrie consortium, in which France has a 38
pct stake through Aerospatiale, and the SNECMA aero-engine
group, which has a 50 pct stake in CFM International with the
U.S. Group General Electric, had both performed well.
    Turnover for the French aerospace industry was 74 billion
francs last year, comparable in constant terms with 1985, while
the trade surplus for the industry was around 30 billion
francs.
    "We should be neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic,"
Benichou said.
 Reuter
