Ear — to — ground

AIRBUS TO GO AHEAD. A meeting was held at the end of July between M Jean Chamant, the French Minister of Transport, Dr Johann Schollhorn, the State Secretary at the Federal German Ministry of Economics, and Mr John Stonehouse, Minister of State, Ministry of Technology, to discuss the European airbus. After the meeting a statement was issued that said the three Governments had decided; ‘for the purpose of strengthening European co‐operation in the field of aviation technology and thereby promoting economic and technological progress in Europe, to take the appropriate measures for the joint development and production of an airbus for short and medium haul transport,’ and that the envisaged measures concerning the development and production of the aircraft will be governed by a memorandum of understanding, on whose main contents agreement had been reached at that meeting, which will be signed by September 15, 1967, and will authorise the first stage of the project.