[3] During 1920, SABCA was founded with the purpose of locally designing and building aircraft to satisfy Belgium's emerging aviation requirements.

[1] During the 1970s and 1980s, SABCA was responsible for operating one of the two European production lines for the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; a total of 164 aircraft would be manufactured at its Gosselies facility.

The European co-production initiative was officially launched on 1 July 1977; under this arrangement, Fokker-produced components were delivered to General Dynamics' Fort Worth facility for fuselage assembly, which were then shipped back to Europe for final assembly of the aircraft at the SABCA's facility; deliveries to the Belgian Air Force started in January 1979.

[5][6] During 1989, SABCA's involvement in the civil aviation sector received a significant boost via the first risk-sharing contract with the multinational aerospace conglomerate Airbus.

[1] During 1992, demand for composite components had grown to the point where a dedicated subsidiary, SABCA Limburg, was established to focus specifically on this activity.