If you’ve ever seen Blazing Saddles,^* you remember the scene where Cleavon Little, realizing that the citizens of Rick Ridge are about to lynch him, holds a gun to his own neck, and then holds himself hostage until he can extricate himself from the situation.

Well, it appears that EADS, parent company of Airbus has watched Blazing Saddles many, many times, because this is the stratagem that they are using to deal with the penalty clauses in their contracts for late delivery:

Aerospace giant EADS has threatened to freeze production of its Airbus subsidiary’s flagship military airlifter if clients do not drop penalty clauses for late delivery, a German news report said Sept. 20.
The A400M airlifter. (EADS)

Der Spiegel weekly, trailing its Sept. 22 publication, cited a letter sent by Louis Gallois, the French chief executive of both companies, to the governments of seven countries who have ordered the A400M plane.

Un-dirtyword-believable.

^*If you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles, you need to rent it and watch it today.