The A380 represents something special

No prizes for guessing the major engineering news of the week: the rolling out of the Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial airliner. Whilst not the massive leap forward in size over existing airliners that the Boeing 747 was on its introduction, the A380 still represents something special.
Political and business controversy exists over the subsidies given to the manufacturer by European governments, but why not? There's undoubtedly a political aspect to this whole project too. At a time when much of the world's attitude to the USA is ambivalent at best, here comes Europe attempting to say: "we can do the biggest and best too, you know". If governments see the A380 as having a political (and wider commercial) role, they should contribute towards it.
Of course, as anyone who's been involved in aircraft design knows, nothing is as simple as the politicians would like it to be. No plane can be built today without components from all over the world, and the A380 is no exception. It will have parts from manufacturers across the USA, as well as from at least one Boeing subsidiary (in Australia!). So perhaps we should have a little less flag-waving, and a little more respect paid to the efforts of the thousands of engineers worldwide who have been, and continue to be, contributing to this fabulous project.