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was tantalizingly close and it
was “looking win, win”. Airbus
was still yet to crack the US
market and many saw a tie-up
with MDC as the answer. In
1987, Airbus aircraft only made
up 2% (53 aircraft) of the US
fleet, although another 60 were
on order.
In March 1988, European
Government ministers gave
Airbus until July to bed-down
a deal with MDC. Airbus also
talked with Lockheed about a
US production line for the A320
but Henri Martre, the then-head
of Aerospatiale and a member
of the Airbus supervisory board,
told trade media that “the Airbus
partner companies were in
agreement with the Government
view that McDonnell Douglas Floorplan of the proposed joint production
offered the best possibility for of the C-17 and A320 in Building 54 at Long Beach.
successful cooperation.”
McDonnell Douglas produce
numerous in-depth studies on
how the co-production would
work using its facilities at Long
Beach and Salt Lake City.
Worsham confirmed that at all
levels of middle management
there was consensus and real
cooperation between Airbus
and MDC and Airbus insiders
say that agreement was immi-
nent with press releases drafted
detailing the agreement.
However, Worsham claims
that the luncheon meet-
ing in Germany between the
then-Chairman of the Airbus
Supervisory Board, the late
Franz-Josef Strauss and the
new MDC Chairman John
McDonnell was a disaster. “This
is a people business and John
and the late Franz-Joseph just
didn’t get on. I knew almost
MDC Chairman John McDonnell and DAC President Bob Hood immediately that the deal was
at the roll out of the MD90 in 1992 ©Geoffrey Thomas dead.”
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