Meanwhile, CFM International, a joint venture between GE and SNECMA which provides engines for more than 60% of Boeing's and Airbus's planes, is promoting a rival design called Leap-X.
Boeing's fears that it would be left in Airbus's wake also prompted it to attack on another front.
Yet the combination of Europe's high wages and strong currency means that some of Airbus's production will have to move into countries where the currency is linked to the dollar.
"We don't need as much power, and it's a different architecture on the A350, " said Tom Williams, Airbus's executive vice president for programs.
EADS, Airbus's parent company, which depends on civil business for 80% of its sales.
Boeing 737s compete mainly with Airbus's A320s in the short-to-medium range, narrow body jet market.
A380 may be rather brighter than either Boeing or Airbus's critics would like to think.
So far this year, Boeing is leading with a net 134 orders against Airbus's 104.
The 787 is also set to enter service in 2008, some two years before Airbus's model.
EADS, presumably in an effort to protect as many of Airbus's 29, 000 German workers as possible.
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The merger with Northrop Grumman has now allied Lockheed to Airbus's great rival in civil aircraft.
Airbus's competing model is essentially a version of its successful A330 with a new pair of wings.
Meanwhile, Airbus's A380 jumbo jet, still a relative newcomer, is showing up on a growing number of routes.
Airbus's A350, which was intended to challenge the Dreamliner, has been delayed because of a problem with its wings.
European governments shoulder a hefty share of Airbus's risk and the loans are cheaper than private investors would offer.
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An American partner would help to increase Airbus's sales in America, where Boeing, the national champion, gets preferential treatment.
Meanwhile, Boeing is winning the dogfight between its 777 and Airbus's competing A340.
At the bottom, Airbus's plans to launch a regional jet with Chinese and Singaporean partners were stymied by Boeing.
Recent weeks have also seen renewed hostilities over funding for the development of Airbus's new super-jumbo jet, the A3XX .
All of this is grist to the mill of Boeing, reeling from Airbus's coup in grabbing half the civil-jet market last year.
A380 delays, Airbus's problem is not its dispersed manufacturing set-up per se.
Most of Airbus's costs are in euros, but sales are in dollars.
The A380 is a four-engined, twin-decked, wide-body jet aircraft built at Airbus's factories throughout Europe and assembled at its facility in Toulouse, France.
However, Airbus's chief executive, Noel Forgeard, reckons that his share by value is 52%, because the Toulouse-based manufacturer has sold more big jets.
It is unsurprising that since its launch in 2004, the Dreamliner has won 350 orders while Airbus's A350 has landed only around 180.
Airbus's wary investors may recall what happened to Boeing itself when it last ramped-up production and suffered disastrous glitches that set it back years.
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Airbus's A380 super-jumbo was severely delayed mainly because of wiring problems.
Now the greater complexity of the super-jumbo has shown up the inherent weaknesses in Airbus's production system, just as it faces a revitalised Boeing and a weaker dollar.
Only last week, for example, Boeing announced that it would make a new regional jet a move that seems designed to undermine Airbus's attempts to design an aircraft for the same market.
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