Der Spiegel on Airbus and Germany

Today's Der Spiegel has an interesting article which seems to suggest that rather than being a nexus of advanced CFRP composite technology as Herr Bischoff has asserted, Germany is lagging seriously behind France and Spain on the expertise front. And it's no holds barred, scorched earth, no quarter given warfare between Germany and France-again.

The folks at Der Spiegel are pulling no punches-the technology gap that's opened up between the partners of Airbus is most evident in-you guessed it-CFRP composite technology. By comparison, the Airbus plant in Nordenham, which once produced CFRP panels, lost the work and is now likely to lose all work except to function as a home for pigeons, stray cats, and weeds..

Hundreds of jobs in Nordenham which applied these CFRP manufacturing skills were lost in an earlier Airbus predecessor to the much ballyhooed Power8-the "Dolores" program-which was headed by none other than Herr Bischoff.