EADS to Supply Parts to Boeing

European plane maker Airbus’ parent company EADS will make a key piece of U.S. archrival Boeing Co.’s latest passenger jet, in a sign of how outsourcing can overcome national pride.

Boeing supplier Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.’s announcement this week that EADS would be a subcontractor on its work on the 787 Dreamliner was at first glance a surprise considering that Boeing and Airbus are facing off in a trade battle.

But analysts said the news was an inevitable consequence of an engineering-intensive industry in which a handful of companies have the know-how to build the necessary specialized parts.

“Subcontracting makes for strange bedfellows,” said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at Teal Group, adding that the move was a sign of “greater internationalization” of manufacturing, an inevitable consequence of globalized airliner sales.

The 787 is one of the most outsourced planes in history, with 30% to be built by Japanese manufacturers.

Dallas-based Vought, which will build much of the plane’s rear fuselage, said it had reached price agreements with companies including EADS, which will make a rear wall known as the aft pressure bulkhead.

Boeing spokeswoman Yvonne Leach said the No. 1 U.S. aerospace company did not see the contract award as surprising. She said Boeing’s Hawker de Havilland unit in Australia supplies some parts to Airbus.