A Glimpse of the Future?

Workers unload components at a new Airbus factory in Tianjin, China, that builds A320 narrow-body planes. The first plane produced by the factory took flight on May 18, 2009. Although most of the parts now are produced in Europe and shipped to China for assembly, Airbus has already agreed to give Chinese manufacturers major contracts on its forthcoming A350 XWB—evidence of China's growing importance to the global industry.