"Bryan Martin" wrote in message
...
It's my understanding that Boeing developed and built the 747 with their
own
money because of strong airline interest in such an airplane.

It designed the 747 to be a military transport. It lost the contract to
the C5, so decided not to waste the design effort and to see if they
could use it as a commerical airliner.

Even today I think you'll find that Boeing gets far less government
"subsidy" than Airbus does. We haven't descended quite as far into the
depths of socialism as France has.

It's called "corporate welfare". Basically all the military contracts
that Boeing gets. Do a google search on "boeing corporate welfare".
Not saying subsidies are right or wrong, but they do exist in both places.
eg http://www.commondreams.org/news2001/1220-02.htm
(first one that I clicked on, I have no idea about the political
connotations of the various websites)

Paul