Boeing set to win US air tanker deal after Northrop pulls out

Agreements reached last Friday, saw EADS receive a further billion euros, at a cost of £220m to the UK in order to continue A400M development, which it says has reached a loss of 4.1 billion euros before even a single plane is built.

The 3.5 billion euros given to them by european governments, Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey, includes

a 1.5 billion Euro loan, and 2 billion payment.

Questions however still remain over the nature of the loan, and whether it is 'repayable' as in the past, as Airbus has often received loans from governments in the past that it did not have to repay.

Ministers working on it, had remained divided on the issue of the loans until late last month.

However, recent reports indicate that EADS will not need to 'repay' if it makes a certain number of export sales which it can then share with the governments involved in building it.