Futurology

I did a masters on composites manufacturing while working at Airbus. One day I was talking to one of the lecturers after the class (a very senior engineer in Airbus Defence and Space), and I asked them what she thought about the SpaceX attempts (back then on their very early stages) at reusing rockets.

She ensured me that reusable rockets could never work. Just the cost of inspecting the rockets to ensure they hadn't gotten damaged would outweigh any savings from reusing them.

People have a habit of getting their predictions horribly wrong, so I'm not implying that she was a bad or short sighted engineer, even if she hyperfixated on one of the industry challenges at the time. My point here is that that anecdote illustrates pretty well what was the mindset in Airbus (and by extension, the European space programme) back then, and explains perfectly why Europe is behind on this.

Airbus has a history of making good or very good aircraft but they usually happen after Boeing has taken a leap. The A350 is great but it arrived almost a decade after the Dreamliner. Its development was reactionary, not visionary.

Although the A380 was a visionary solution for problem there wasn't a business case for. Not sure if that's any better...