Presently, the company employs around 1,200 specialists including more than 170 engineers; it carries out upgrades, revisions, and overhauls on helicopters and light aircraft.

Poland's innovative PZL P.11 fighter captured the attention of Romanian officials, leading to a batch of 95 aircraft, referred to as the P.11f, being built by IAR starting in 1936.

[7] The Romanian Air Force was greatly appreciative of the type, which heavily contributed to the decision to also licensed produce its upgraded derivative, the PZL P.24, which had been designed exclusively for the export market.

When it first flew in 1939, the IAR 80 was claimed to be comparable to contemporary designs being deployed by the most advanced military powers, including the British Hawker Hurricane and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E.

[13] From 1947, IAR became the Intreprinderea Metalurgica de Stat (State Ironworks) and from 1948, the company was renamed to Uzina Tractorul Brașov [ro] (UTB).

[16] These rotorcraft were not only manufactured for domestic consumption, such as the Romanian Air Force, but also for the global market; roughly one-third of all IAR 330s were reportedly sold to export customers.

[16][17] During the late 1980s, a Soviet-Romanian partnership led to the development of the Kamov Ka-126 helicopter; only a handful were built before production was terminated shortly following the Romanian Revolution and the collapse of the Communist government.

[1] During the late 1990s, American aerospace company Bell Helicopters entered negotiations on the topic of acquiring a majority stake in IAR.

[19] According to aerospace periodical Flight International, Bell was at one stage set to purchase a 70 percent shareholding in the firm; this arrangement was closely tied to a planned procurement of the AH-1RO Dracula attack helicopter by Romania, which would have been manufactured locally by IAR.