In an attempt to cut costs, and deal with the falling US dollar, EADS is looking at aggressively outsourcing to the US and cheap overseas countries, and the governments that generally back Airbus are saying that their backing is contingent on local manufacture (Paid Subscription Required).

This is not surprising. Boeing and its partners aggressively pursued all sorts of tax abatements and set asides with the 787, and you would never expect (for example) Georgia to pay for a plant in North Carolina.

I would also add, as Peter Hintze, the German aerospace secretary, that Boeing’s distributed base has thus far proved a major disappointment.