To Raise the Wind
Ten years ago developing the jumbo jet pushed Boeing to the brink of bankruptcy. Drastic action had to be taken to save the company. Former president of Boeing Commercial Aircraft
Company, Tex Bouillion , oversaw the sacking of 68,000 workers. The employees paid the price of salvation.
'The problem to finance an aircraft is not to collect the money,' says M Pierson of Airbus Industrie in France,
'... it is who bears the risk of failure.' In this case it was the taxpayer. With European employment legislation, no track record and huge upfront costs, the company feels there was no other way. There are others - no less ambitious, no less brave.
John Edgeley went bust with Optica, Richard Noble is fighting to save ARV ... and then there are the Japanese. Tonight Will Hutton meets the men who make the planes, who raise the wind - the finance - in an industry where nine out of ten projects fail.
Producer MARIE THOMAS
Film editor STEVE HOLDSWORTH
Executive producer JOHN COLEMAN BBC South