Vinci SA

Vinci, corporately styled VINCI, is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899 as Société Générale d'Enterprises. It employs over 179,000 people and is the largest construction company in the world by revenue. Vinci is listed at Euronext's Paris stock exchange and is a member of the Euro Stoxx 50 index. Its head office is in Rueil-Malmaison.

History

The company was founded by Alexandre Giros and Louis Loucheur as Société Générale d’Entreprises S.A. (SGE) in 1899.

In 1986 SGE acquired Sogea, a business founded in 1878. Started building Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, DPR of Korea.

In 1988 the company acquired Campenon Bernard, a business founded in 1920.

In 1991 SGE acquired Norwest Holst, a company founded in 1969.

In 2000 it changed its name to Vinci.

In 2001 it acquired Groupe GTM, which was a combination of Dumez, founded in 1880, and GTM founded in 1891.

In 2006 the company acquired Autoroutes du Sud de la France (the Southern Freeways Company).

In February 2007 Vinci completed the acquisition of Soletanche-Bachy, the world second largest leading geotechnical specialist contractor after Bauer.

Vinci

Vinci may refer to:

Places

People

Arts and entertainment

Other uses

Vinci (automobile)

Vinci is a Portuguese-based project for a brand of cars (possibly owned by a development stage company called Retroconcept or Retrosport (both names are referred to in sources)).

In 2007 the brand announced the first Portuguese sports car. Its design was inspired by the cars of the 60's and 70's. The car is equipped with the GM LS engine, the same as the Chevrolet Corvette. The rest of car was claimed to be a product of Portuguese engineering (serious doubts on this matter are expressed on the Portuguese Wikipedia page for the car), produced with the experience of working for other brands like UMM and Bravia (builder of the Chaimite series of armoured vehicles). The brand, Vinci, is also developing other models like Vinci Sport, Vinci TT (from the Portuguese "Todo-o-terreno" All Terrain) and Vinci Eco (a 'nature-friendly' car). The company wants to forget less successful Portuguese experiences in the automotive industry, such as UMM and Bravia, and instead follow the example of AJP, a Portuguese builder of motorcycles.

Vinci (rocket engine)

Vinci is a European Space Agency cryogenic liquid rocket engine currently under development. It is designed to power the new upper stage of Ariane 5, ESC-B, and will be the first European re-ignitable cryogenic upper stage engine, raising the launcher's GTO performances to 12 t.

Overview

Vinci is an expander cycle rocket engine fed with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Its biggest improvement from its predecessor, the HM7B (which powers the ESC-A), is the capability of restarting up to five times. It is also the first European expander cycle engine, removing the need for a gas generator to drive the fuel and oxidizer pumps. The engine features a carbon ceramic extendable nozzle in order to have a large, 2.15 m diameter nozzle extension with minimum length: the retracted nozzle part is deployed only after the upper stage separates from the rest of the rocket; after extension, the engine's overall length increases from 2.3 m to 4.2 m.

Development

Although the ESC-B development was put on hold in 2003, the Vinci project has not been cancelled: at a lower pace, the engine is still being developed. On 22 December 2006, Snecma announced a new ESA contract for Vinci rocket engine long-duration and re-ignition testing. In late April 2010 the German Aerospace Center DLR announced the start of a six-month test campaign for the Vinci engine at its Lampoldshausen facility. The first successful test firing of this campaign took place on 27 May 2010. The first flight test of the Vinci engine is not expected until 2016 or 2017.