The perfect symbol for the European (dis)Union

The Airbus A380, that great example of the heights to be reached by the EU, just crashed!  I am grateful to the Spectator - no, no, not the London one, I mean the American Spectator, for highlighting the dismal details.  

Airbus SE announced the demise of its 380 aircraft, after 13 years in service. Launched with about $4 billion [My emphasis] in government developmental aid in 2000, the program was from the start a vanity project, intended to show Americans that Europe could build a commercial aircraft that would be bigger, faster, and better than the Boeing 747, which has been in service for 50 years. [...]

And so, a committee was struck and it was decided that the Airbus A380 project would be managed by a Franco-German team: DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, based in Hamburg, and the Lagardère Group in Toulouse. Only the team wasn’t to be integrated. Rather, there would be parallel structures of corporate officers (two CEOs, CFOs, and so on), thus ensuring strict parity as well as failure.

What could possibly go wrong?  Well, just about everything, of course, and it did - BIG TIME!  For example:

Not even the software used to construct this very complex aircraft was to be integrated, for neither Daimler nor Lagardère wanted to use the other’s software even though the two systems were incompatible. [...]

As the troubles multiplied over the following year, the Germans sent more and more mechanics to Toulouse, until they outnumbered their French counterparts by almost 2 to 1 - 1,300 to around 700.

Sacré bleu!  But never mind all that:

Airbus threw a coming-out party for the A380 that rivaled anything Hollywood might stage, replete with “strobe lights, smoke machines and chorus girls,” according to the New York Times. France’s President Chirac was there, and proclaimed that “When it takes to the skies it will carry the colors of our Continent, and our technological ambitions, to even greater heights.”

Still 'n' all, as those Yankee-doodles tend to say:

[…] the 380 was the largest airplane in the world, a double decker with 550 seats. So large in fact that airports could not accommodate it without modifying their runways and gates. So large that it became harder and harder to fill as passengers decided they’d rather take direct flights to smaller regional airports rather than having to transfer to a connecting flight at one of the major hubs.

As always in these colossal cock-ups, the only question is 'who suffers?'

In the A380 fiasco, there are two big losers. First, there is the European taxpayer when the Airbus A380 loans are forgiven, as were the Airbus’s A340’s loans after that program was canceled. In the absence of this forgiveness Airbus SE would not survive.

The other loser is Boeing. Last year the World Trade Organization ruled that Boeing had been harmed by the governmental loans granted to Airbus which violated standard commercial terms. But under the rules of the WTO, Boeing will not be recompensed, for the cancellation of programs has the practical effect of a bankruptcy, with all claims against these programs being wiped out.

Now, what's the French or German for "Jolly good show"?

 

Comments

[Bob]

There certainly is a lot of sport to be had with the French and Germans at this point, but let's not forget the Concorde SST, the Brit and French wonderplane:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

Boeing certainly is on a roll lately. They've also given Canada's Bombardier heartburn. But as Canadians complain, Boeing is no stranger to government subsidies:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3773916/bombardier-boeing-subsidies/

As someone who actually worked in aerospace, I can assure you the industry couldn't exist without taxpayers. Boeing just has the best team of lawyers ready to take advantage of any mistake by competitors.

[David Duff]

Honestly, Bob, you're such a 'mechanic'! Don't you realise that Concorde was a work of art!

[Loz]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_between_Airbus_and_Boeing - section on controversies.

I'm sure someone can answer this, but the tax payers' money put into Airbus seems to have been nation state tax payers dosh i.e. France and Germany, not EU money?

Another nation state cock-up then, that the EU will likely have to poop-scoop like all the others: Poland corrupting its judiciary, Hungary corrupting everything, Merkel's open door immigration, Greece and Italy fiscal incontinence.

And Boeing have been up to much the same: $5.4bn fine earlier on for illegal military and NASA funding, and more likely to follow as the EU retaliates with lawyers bringing cases to the WTO.

And finally, well, at least the US and EU have got an aircraft industry to be protectionist about, which is more than you can say for Blighty!

As an anti-EU, pro-Brexit mud-sling that was a bit of a plane crash, if I may say so.

SoD

[Jimmy Glesga]

Britain embraced the EEC, EU and a consequence was is that those in power who benefited were oblivious to the conditions of the working classes. The fall of the EU is the only way the corruption can be revealed.

[backofanenvelope]

If you visit the French museum at Waterloo, you will find to your surprise that they won the Battle of Waterloo! The A380 was just an another example of French illusions of grandeur.

[Loz]

Great call Gaffer!

Was that "The Kiss of Duff" working its distructive powers?

Airbus can clean up the commercial aircraft market now Boeing is ducked ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/04/06/boeing-slash-737-aircraft-production-20-percent-crashes/

Viva EU enterprise!

Did