During the 1950s and 1960s, the French government, which had taken a significant interest in the re-establishment and growth of its national aviation industries in the aftermath of the Second World War, developed a detailed request for a combined liaison/trainer aircraft, to be equipped with twin-turbofan engines.

[4] It was a conventional design for its class, a low-wing monoplane powered by a pair of turbofan engines, which were mounted upon nacelles attached to the rear fuselage.

While frequently contrasted with the Citation 500, the SN 600 is a larger aircraft capable of carrying more passengers, being equipped with swept wings, and was envisioned to be cheaper during its launch year.

[3] On 16 July 1970, the prototype SN 600, powered by a pair of Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D engines installed, performed its maiden flight.

[9][2][3] The loss of the prototype, while quickly resolved from a technical perspective, has been claimed to have badly shaken the faith of prospective customers in the type.

[10] By this point, the Corvette programme was three years behind the rival Citation 500 business jet, despite the two aircraft being originally revealed within months of one another.

[10] During 1973, U.S. Corvette Incorporated, a dedicated North American-based distributor, was established in Atlanta, Georgia to act as a sales and aircraft completion center for the region.

In response to the lack of deliveries, Air Center Inc. sued Aérospatiale for non-performance, having only received a single non-certified demonstrator aircraft out of a contracted fleet of 70 production Corvettes which had been due to be delivered by May 1974.

[2][15] A report produced by the French government's Court of Audit found that losses accumulated by the Corvette programme amounted to roughly $190 million, or 66 per cent of Aerospatiale's fiscal deficits from 1972 to 1975.

The same report noted that the company's management had lacked real appreciation of the risks involved in such a hotly competed niche role from existing British, American and French (the latter being in the form of Dassault Aviation's Falcon 20), and stated that: "It is certain that the Corvette programme is, and will remain, a major commercial and financial disaster".

If developed as intended, this model would to have featured a further fuselage stretch which would have allowed it to accommodate up to 18 seats; however, production of the Corvette had been terminated prior to any having been constructed.

[19] By January 2009, a small number of Corvettes remained active in Europe and Africa, including one (F-GPLA cn 28) in France that had been fitted out for aerial photography missions.