The global aircraft

There is this funny idea that the global market for large commercial airplanes is pretty much split in two, pitting America against Europe, Boeing against Airbus. That's an idea rooted in history and very much kept alive by the image of "industrial champions" of the two companies, and by the ongoing trade battle between Washington and Brussels over explicit and stealth subsidies. But that's an idea disconnected from reality. According to a recent article in Newsweek, 70 percent of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner (scheduled to fly in 2008) is being built outside the US, while up to 60 percent of the production of the Airbus A350 (2010) will be done outside continental Europe. These are global crafts. Here is how the magazine summarized the sourcing of the Dreamliner's parts:

While subcontractors work around the world in a virtual global factory, "project managers in Everett, Washington, watch it all take shape with 3-D glasses that allow them to walk around the digital prototype and monitor every change made by their 6,000 workers worldwide, just as if the model were being assembled in a real factory", the magazine writes. It's interesting to note that sometimes the same contractors - particularly in Japan and China - supply both Boeing and Airbus.

[tags: Boeing Airbus]

Comments

[aircraft]

Hi,
Very nice post and its a funny idea that the global market for large commercial airplanes is pretty much split in two, pitting America against Europe, Boeing against Airbus.