The company said it would be focussing on the design and manufacturing processes needed to produce a next generation composite wing, with the emphasis on reducing weight and aerodynamic drag.

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But in Toulouse last week Tom Williams, Airbus's head of manufacturing, dropped a hint that the firm's other factory in Britain (at Filton, near Bristol) could lose to French or German plants when Airbus starts making wing panels from composite materials rather than aluminium.

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