EADS edges out Boeing

Europe’s multi-country EADS edged out U.S.-based Boeing as the biggest aerospace and defense company in the world in 2008, based on revenues. A study from Deloitte released Tuesday said Boeing had led EADS in 2007, but a strike of machinists in Boeing's commercial division last fall allowed EADS to move ahead. Deloitte's study of 67 aerospace and defense companies or divisions of companies found that European companies grew faster at 9.56 percent in revenue than U.S. firms, which grew at 6.3 percent. (Source: PRNewswire, Defense News, 05/19/09) Gulf Coast note: EADS and Boeing are competing to build the next generation of aerial tanker. Boeing wants to build them in Washington State and EADS wants to assemble them in Mobile, Ala.