Gerhard Schröder and Lionel Jospin, the German chancellor and French prime minister, were at the signing of the deal.So, after years of haggling, Europe at last has a huge transnational aerospace and defence group.
The only parallels to this were the growth of railroads in the decades after the Civil War and the rise of the huge U.S. aerospace and defense complex during and after World War II.
WHEN Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas four years ago, it acquired a huge military-aerospace business and overtook Lockheed Martin as the world's biggest aerospace group.
The combined company will have huge businesses in aerospace and chemical products, as well as smaller businesses in automotive parts and building controls.
California's huge defence and aerospace industry grew first from the second world war, then from the Korean war and the cold war (and, beyond the scope of this book, finally the Vietnam war).
A merger with BAE would have created a huge defence and aerospace group, with combined sales of around £60bn.
The European Union's recent green paper on space policy states that there is a huge demand for aerospace engineers.
The economy is being rattled by huge layoffs in the aerospace and military contracting industries.
Advanced Metallurgical Group was ripe for a public listing, Mr. Schimmelbusch said, because it is in markets that have huge growth potential, like aerospace and solar energy.
