AEROFINA

AEROFINA is a Bucharest maker of on-board instruments and equipment for aircraft, on the Pipera industrial platform [1].

History

It was founded by Decree 165 of 16 May 1980 as ICPAEBA (Întreprinderea de cercetare și producție de aparate și echipamente de bord pentru aeronave), under the Romanian aeronautical industry centre CNIAR; on 14 March 1983 it registered the trade mark AEROFINA [1]. In 1990 the Aerospace Equipment Enterprise “Aerofina” passed to the Ministry of Resources and Industry, in 1991 it became the “Uzina Aerofina” works of the Army Industrial Group (GIA), in 1997 the state-owned company S.C. Aerofina S.A., and from 2000 a private company, owned since 2002 by its present and former employees [1].

Products

Its object was the research, design and production of on-board instruments and equipment for aircraft, extended in 1981 to similar equipment for missiles, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and ships [1]. It supplied equipment for the IAR 93, IAR 99, IAR 316 and IAR 330 aircraft and helicopters and for armoured vehicle and missile programmes; in 1982–1992 more than 350 products were approved and made for these programmes [1]. The book lists many of them, such as pressure transmitters, switches, fuel level sensors, indicators, relays, electric motors and actuators and an anti-skid electronic unit for the IAR 99 trainer, some of AEROFINA’s own design and others made to designs of the aviation institute INCREST or to French, British and Soviet references [1].

From 1991, with fewer military orders, it also designed and made medical equipment, more than 50 types of equipment for rebuilding and modernising railway passenger cars, and railway signalling and safety equipment [1]. It took part in the MiG-21 LanceR and IAR 330 Puma SOCAT modernisation programmes and in the production of the IAR 99 Șoim [1].

The site after 1989

After 1989 its administrative building was rented to various firms and then sold, and other buildings were sold off; around 2011 AEROFINA kept only the small building at the entrance, and its remaining staff worked in a building taken over from the neighbouring former military unit [2].