How many Alouette III had been sold by 1978?

Short answer

The French line's milestone falls in 1979, not 1978: that year Alouette III number 1,437 came off the Marignane assembly line, after which main production ceased. More than 500 were built under license abroad, and the total exceeded 2,000 units.

Published: November 1, 2026 · Updated: November 1, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

How many Alouette III had been sold by 1978?

US Navy 040617 N-8213G 048 Aviation Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Rodney Larkins, from Sacramento, Calif., lands an Argentine SA-316 Alouette III helicopter containing Distinguished Visitors (DV) on the flight deck

The closure of the Marignane line

In 1979, Alouette III number 1,437 came off the company's assembly line in Marignane (France), after which the main production line was closed. French production had begun in 1961, when the initial SE 3160 model entered series production. The closure of the main line was not the end: the last French-built Alouette III was delivered in 1985. In France, then, the type was produced between 1961 and 1985, although licensed production continued.

Licensed production

More than 500 Alouette III are recorded as having been built under license abroad, in various countries. HAL built more than 300 units and, in its Chetak version, more than 350 aircraft had been produced by the 2020s. The Romanian IAR 316 was an Aérospatiale SA 316B Alouette III built under license between 1971 and 1987, with 250 examples built.

Six decades of manufacturing

Production stages were split between Sud (1961-1970), Aérospatiale (1970-1985), HAL (1965-2021) and IAR (1971-1987). Introduced in the early 1960s, the Alouette III exceeded 2,000 units built over a production run that spanned six decades.