Boeing, Airbus Jostle for Orders at Paris Air Show

The sinister-looking “bat wing” stealth bomber of the U.S. Air Force stole the spotlight Sunday at the Paris air show as Boeing and Airbus traded insults in their fight for civil plane orders.

U.S. manufacturer Boeing put its latest model, the giant twin-engine B777, on display, and unveiled the first big deals at the nine-day show: orders worth some $564 million from three European airlines for its new B737-800 passenger jet. Industry sources said the European Airbus consortium would announce two new orders today.

The black Spirit of Missouri B2 plane, surrounded on the Tarmac by French military police a few hundred yards from the thick lines of spectators who arrived early to see it, stayed just over an hour.

Its flat triangular form gives it the look of a science-fiction machine. It arrived remarkably quietly--it does not have any of the engine glare that betrays other planes on radar screens.

The $500-million Northrop Grumman bomber was on public display in Europe for the first time. For the last Paris show two years ago, some U.S. exhibitors stayed home, fearing French industrial espionage.

The B2’s crew members said they carried out a simulated bombing over the Netherlands early Sunday before landing in Paris.

Boeing, which has been helped in the export markets by a weak dollar and lobbying by President Clinton, said it intends to capture two-thirds of the world passenger plane market. It now has 60%.

The four-nation Airbus consortium is fiercely contesting Boeing for a 50% share of the world market and is showcasing its wide-body, long-haul A330 and A340 airliners.

“Although we are clearly the market leader, we’re not satisfied with a 60% share,” Boeing Commercial Airplane Group President Ron Woodward said. “We intend to capture two-thirds.”

The commercial war between Europe and the United States was highlighted when French President Jacques Chirac, as he officially opened the show Saturday, called for greater European cooperation to defend its industrial base.

“Without such cooperation . . . our continent’s industry would already have disappeared,” he said.

Chirac did not refer specifically to the United States, but he did say that although he accepts competition, “openness cannot mean a commercial war without rules.”

Manfred Bischoff, president and chief executive of Germany’s Daimler-Benz Aerospace, fully agreed.

“In Europe we finally have to recognize that close cooperation between our companies is essential if we are to have any real prospects of success in the global market,” he said.