One thing that I did not appreciate enough until reading the book is how little the UK actually cared about creating a European aerospace company, unlike the French and Germans.

The UK was participating in Airbus International's A-300 program only to keep a foot into the door in case their own BAC Two-Eleven and Three-Eleven would not work out. Even Rolls-Royce was not really taking Airbus seriously, constantly delaying the project and not allocating much ressources to it, while claiming otherwise in tripartite meetings with the French and Germans.