could have lifted the massive jet liner at its two thousand and five unveiling in toulouse a three eighty wasn't just the future of aviation but the symbol of what the e.u. strive to be unified industrious competitive as is strained triomphe is a triumph of european science of and european engineering schools but the a three eighty was more than a symbol it was a product in a competitive market and that market was indeed moving to bigger jets when air bus began talking about a super jumbo in the early one nine hundred ninety s. the company flirted with a joint project with rival boeing before starting work on the a three eighty in two thousand and two production was carefully divided across the e.u. the wings in the u.k. the landing gear in spain assembly in germany and finishing in france billions of euros in government subsidies kept things moving and angered rival boeing the final product brought volume to the airlines they could pack in more than eight hundred fifty passengers in a single flight if the market increasingly demanded the opposite smaller twin