by MONITOR
Yesterday's successful maiden flight by the Airbus A380 provided a welcome indication that production and technical progress is being maintained with this giant plane while political arguments rage between the European Union and Airbus on the one hand and the United States government and the Boeing corporation on the other. As always the dispute is about the government subsidies provided to aircraft manufacturers to develop new models. Difficulties arise because different countries provide their subsidies in different ways. In the case of the threenation A380 the money comes mainly in the form of government soft loans known as launch aid intended to cover all the early stages of researching, designing and constructing a new aircraft before it can actually be placed on the market. In the United States they have for decades done things differently, for instance by placing contracts for military aircraft and equipment that have substantial benefits for civilian models also.
Aircraft subsidies
28/04/2005 00:00
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