UPDATE 1-EADS in talks to sell majority in Socata unit

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PARIS, July 4 (Reuters) - Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Fridayit had entered exclusive talks with private French aerospace group Daher to sell it a majority stake in its general aviation unit EADS Socata.

The two sides have been edging towards a deal for months as EADS looks for help to develop advanced new composite materials and components for the next type of Airbus, the mid-sized, long-range A350 which will cost 10 billion euros ($15.7 billion) to build.

"Bringing together Daher and EADS Socata would allow the creation of a major actor in the area of aerostructures and business aviation and develop joint projects in these two areas, in particular with regards to the A350 for which EADS Socata Daher would be a tier one partner," an EADS statement said.

Socata's CEO Jean-Michel Leonard said in January that the company, based at Tarbes at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains, had an exclusive deal with Daher to bid for packages of work on the A350, needing investment of 100 million euros from Socata. A confirmed role on the A350 would lift recent doubts over the future of Socata, a 97-year-old company which built the first plane to cross the Mediterranean.

Socata's aircraft such as the recently unveiled 6-7 seat TBM 850 are at the opposite end of the scale from Airbus jetliners, ranging up to the A380 superjumbo, and are aimed at businesses and wealthy owner-pilots.

The TBM series has brought once loss-making Socata into a small profit in the past four years. But EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois said in January it could not manage without outside support.

It has expertise in fuselage construction but lacks the financial muscle needed to keep up with demand for fuel-saving lightweight materials.

Socata's revenues of 220 million euros in 2006 come equally from small plane production like the TBM, about 80 percent of whose sales are in the United States, and sub-contracting on fuselages and other structures.