Focus: Bye bye Airbus
BAE’s departure from the Airbus consortium may make sense in the short term, but it raises questions for the long haul about the future of plane-making in Britain. Report by Dominic O’Connell
In a few weeks a large shadow will loom over central London. It will be the Airbus A380, the largest passenger aircraft ever built, on its first visit to Heathrow.

As the $300m (£170m) behemoth glides into land — the trial flight will check whether Heathrow’s congested taxiways and terminals can accommodate the new plane — those watching could be forgiven for feeling a swell of pride.

About half of the aircraft by value is made in Britain. The wings come from Airbus’s main UK plant at Broughton, North Wales, and the engines are built by Rolls-Royce at Derby. And every British taxpayer helped to fund its launch — the government provided a £530m grant to get it off the ground.

But that feeling of pride may turn out to be short-lived. Under plans announced last week, Britain is to give up its stake in Airbus, the company behind the A380. BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence and aerospace group, will sell its 20% stake, with the buyer almost certain to be EADS, the Franco-German combine that already owns the other 80%. BAE is expected to use the £3 billion from the sale to build up its defence-industry interests in America.

The move signals the end of direct British ownership of the manufacture of civil aircraft. It cuts a bloodline that stretches from the A380 back through Concorde to the Comet and squadrons of other historic aircraft that once made Britain the top nation in aerospace.

It also threatens to rob Britain of one of its few remaining large-scale, high-tech manufacturing operations. At its plants at Broughton and Filton, near Bristol, Airbus directly employs 13,000 in the UK, and by its own estimate indirectly supports another 135,000 jobs.

While there appears to be no immediate threat to those jobs, aerospace experts say that over time the contracts are likely to leak away to France and Germany, and the skills and expertise are likely to go with them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2124890,00.html