Flying high

In 2004, when European airplane maker European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company announced it was setting up a facility in Mobile, Ala, it seemed like a smart idea. Shorthand for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company is either EADS or Airbus, one of the company's well-known offshoots.

The French-based company wanted to become a player in the lucrative U.S. defense contracting trade. Mobile seemed like a natural. Drive less than an hour to the west and you're in Mississippi. Head an hour to the east and you're in Florida. That adds up to six U.S. senators and countless congressmen with a stake in seeing that a share of defense contracts go to the Mobile facility.

The strategy paid off Friday when the U.S. Air Force awarded to EADS and its North American partner Northrop Grumman a contract estimated to be worth $35 billion or more.

While the results are not entirely positive and won't completely make up for the lost textile industry jobs that went overseas, Alabama is (or soon will be) the home to a German steelmaker and carmakers from Germany, South Korea and Japan.