Known as the integrated powered wing program, it was one of several R&D efforts the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) supported that lobbied the U.K. government on behalf of the disparate manufacturing group. In some ways, the omens for help were better than in the past, particularly when the U.K. government had dragged its feet on funding for such recent programs as the A340-500/600. The critical importance of the A3XX was much more widely recognized at high government levels throughout the continent, and the European Commission had earmarked aerospace for key action as part of its newly ratified Fifth Framework €16.3 billion (U.S. $18.9 billion) research-and-development initiative.

Although a massive amount collectively, the European Union still urged its members to step up their support from an average of 1.9 to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, reminding them that the United States outspent Europe in aerospace research and technology development by a factor of four. In the Fourth Framework, which was by now coming toward its scheduled closure at the end of 1998, aerospace research projects had attracted more than €400 million (U.S. $465 million) out of a total of €13.2 billion (U.S. $15.3 billion).

By mid-1999, the parts of the complex assembly jigsaw were starting to fall into place. Wing work was, to the United Kingdom’s relief, allocated to British Aerospace in Broughton near Chester, but the fuselage detail remained undecided. DASA, which made the forward and aft fuselage sections of the A330/A340, argued more strongly than ever for Hamburg. Gerhard Puttfarcken, DASA Airbus vice president of product management for the A3XX, said that the piggyback A340 was essentially a waste of money, as it was geared simply toward transporting wings to Toulouse.

Instead, DASA supported a ship-borne system that would support existing centers of excellence, and suggested a single roll-on, roll-off ship that would make a weekly round-trip voyage among Aerospatiale’s Saint-Nazaire factory, Chester in the United Kingdom, and Hamburg, delivering the sub-assemblies to support a rate of four aircraft per month. To support its bid, DASA would construct a 345-acre factory on the site of land reclaimed from the filled-in lake.

Aerospatiale countered with a proposal to help set up a huge aeronautical “park” in Toulouse and to use the Beluga to transport the top and bottom halves of the double-deck fuselage sections. To simplify mating, these would be assembled as full-length sections and joined to create the entire fuselage. The wings, Aerospatiale argued, would be carried atop the modified A340 one at a time, requiring two rotations a week.