It is difficult to fault the French in terms of support for domestic 'strategic industries'. From the late 1940s, successive governments planned and modernised the economy from electrification of the railway system to a nuclear-powered grid. Aerospace was part of the plan - indeed 'planification' was the technocratic approach to almost everything. Not that planification always got things right. One of the last of the great French plans in the early 1970s placed Airbus third behind Concorde and the Mercure in terms of investment priorities. Over in Britain, there was a UK National Aerospace Strategic Plan in the 1990s; the Blair years offered the Aerospace Innovation and Growth plans; and, later, an R&D strategy under Cameron - all welcome and well received. But this is amateur stuff compared to the continual commitment across the Channel at national and regional level to aerospace.
展开▼
