Ian Verchere
In the most strident language heard so far, German industry minister Siegmar Mosdorf has threatened to scupper Airbus Industrie hopes for the future very large A3XX airliner.
Mosdorf said that there will be no funding for DaimlerChrysler Aerospace's portion of Airbus A3XX development "...until we have a concrete integration plan leading to a single corporate entity."
Now that DaimlerChrysler (Dasa) has acquired Casa, the Spanish veto in Airbus affairs has evaporated and the German company effectively controls 41.2% of Airbus versus France's 37.9% and the UK's 20%.
Aviation ministers from Germany, France and the UK yesterday gave the three private companies now controlling Airbus - Aerospatiale Matra, British Aerospace and Dasa - until the end of summer to come up with a concrete plan for turning the European aerospace consortium into a corporate entity.
Financing
Mosdorf says no provision has been made in Germany's 2000 budget for initial soft financing - allowable under the terms of the 1992 EU/US large aircraft sector of understanding - for new aircraft development.
However, he says, this could be changed on receipt of a firm plan from the three partners.
There are similar warnings from UK minister John Battle and his French counterpart Jean-Claude Gayssot who says the enormous potential and success of the Airbus programme could only be built upon in the next century by proceeding with the A3XX.
But Gayssot says that Airbus' window of opportunity - the three years taken by Boeing to assimilate McDonnell Douglas - was now closing as the US giant concluded streamlining measures.
Source: Flight Daily News