[jariel]

"Airbus has an "innovation" (R&D) department"

They have pretty deep partnerships with European state schools etc. which is highly rational, at the same time, it puts issues of 'government subsidy' on the table re: trade agreements. Nobody makes such complicated things 'alone', at that level it's going to be a broad mix of national integration efforts. It makes it hard to do trade because everyone else is pointing out everyone else's non-market subsidisations.

[timwaagh]

this is true of most if not all companies in the knowledge sector. Google for example is known for starting as a phd project.

[jariel]

It's not remotely the same with G as it is for AirBus.

Commercial Airlines do not exist without government intervention, and often depend on non-market entities for key technology.

Google could drop every academic program and not skip a beat, as most companies.