If you're in the business of making and selling airliners, that's what you have to be. It's why Airbus needed government money to get started: it wasn't just th

If you're in the business of making and selling airliners, that's what you have to be. It's why Airbus needed government money to get started: it wasn't just the money they needed, they needed expert diplomats to have some skin in the game for the launch of a credible competitor in that sector to the US manufacturers. Boeing in the UK has an interesting reputation right now: they were involved in the MoD's bungling of an upgrade to Chinook firmware [1], and stepped in to pick up a contract worth hundreds of millions to basically make some small changes, run the compiler, and put the result on the machines. The MoD were so embarrassed they basically let Boeing bully them into becoming a full stack outsource service provider on these things. Boeing now run full-page adverts in various news magazines (The Week, The Economist, etc.), explaining why they are so important to the UK and how much they love to "invest" in the UK around the Chinooks. Eight machines that have opened the door to Boeing being a very central part of the MoD, British Army and RAF for the foreseeable future... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jun/04/military.defence https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/jun/04/military.defence