This was the headline from the AP wire out of Washington. This is really unbelievable!!
Let's first discuss the headline...I would like to know why the press is trying to hide the fact that the contract was awarded to Airbus. OK NF is the Los Angles partner of the firm, but the plane will be built by Airbus.
One other fact that you need to know before I start my rant. The EAD Team plans to perform the final assembly in Alabama, although then plan will mostly built in Europe. It will use GE engines built in Ohio and NC.
Are we nuts???? There are two major airplane builders....us and them....Boeing and the European union. Airbus was actually formed by a bunch of European countries that want to get into the airplane market. It was not a private enterprise. The Governments set up the company and then bought from the company. It was built to beat Boeing.
This is really big news....this is where lots of jobs not only for Boeing, but thousands of sub contractors will be lost o their European counterparts. Oh yeah, Alabama will get 2,000 jobs. They are all low end assembly positions in one of the low cost areas of the US. Now I am not saying these jobs are not important. but I will say that we already have them in other parts ofthe country for Boeing. All of the engineering job, the high end jobs are the ones that will go to Europe. Never mind we now will rely on Europe for this technology.
Also, the fact that we will need to call Europe to help us to keep our planes flying. The current planes we have doing this are over 15-20 years old. I am not sure I want to be dependent on our "friends" in Europe (OK the Brits are cool, but airbus in not in England) for upkeep of a major part of our military fleet.
I am going to write my congressman....It will probably do no good.....Missouri reps and the rest of the Midwest are Boeing Fans already.
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