Competitive tensions between Airbus and Boeing are truly at a new high point following Airbus Industrie's late-December decision to launch its A380 (formerly A3XX) mega-transport. This means Airbus and Boeing now have intense competitions going at every level of the jetliner spectrum. It also means the manufacturers have two fundamentally different philosophies of how the air transport market will develop in the coming years. JUMBO VERSUS MINI JUMBO

Jet engine manufacturers can truly say they've been to hell and back. The past decade has seen a drastic simultaneous civil and military aviation downturn, coupled with vicious market share wars and unprecedented demands on development funding.

The upcoming United Arab Emirates fighter buy will probably be the largest export fighter purchase until the end of the decade. This perennially delayed decision, now scheduled for early 1998, isn't particularly large. Covering only about 80 medium fighters, it's dwarfed by Taiwan's 1992 150-unit F-16 and 60-unit Mirage 2000 buy. But the decision will be made against a volatile backdrop. It will help determine how close the U.S. fighter primes are to achieving their goal of vanquishing their European competitors in the world fighter market.