Europe Hails Maiden Flight of Airbus A380

PARIS (AP) -- France's government, struggling to muster support for the European constitution before a hotly contested referendum, hailed the maiden flight of the giant Airbus A380 as a shining example of European prowess.

Officials across the EU celebrated the successful test of the world's largest commercial plane as a joint European accomplishment - a message French officials eagerly played up. Airbus is a European plane-making consortium headquartered in Toulouse, southwest France.

''Today,'' President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday, ''a new page of aeronautic history has been written.''

''It is a magnificent achievement for European industrial cooperation and encouragement toward continuing in the path of building a Europe of innovation and progress,'' Chirac said in a statement.

He planned a special visit Thursday to Airbus headquarters to extend his congratulations in person.

Chirac's center-right government is battling to counter opposition to the EU constitution that will be put to voters in France's May 29 referendum. More than a dozen recent polls have shown a slight lead for the ''no'' camp.

The flight offered a timely opportunity to link French pride with the EU.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called Airbus ''a formidable example for Europeans'' that shows what ''a united and ambitious Europe'' can accomplish when it works together.

French ministers broke into applause when Chirac announced during their Cabinet meeting that Airbus' superjumbo jet was flying.

''The president told us that the plane had taken off at 10:29 a.m. (0829 GMT) and there was, something which is quite rare, applause,'' said Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau.

The flight was a moment of ''pride for the whole ministerial team, for all the French and, above them, for all Europeans,'' he said.

''This is a European production,'' said Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. ''It's certain that we would have had a lot more trouble obtaining such a result if we had not done it through Europe.''

Spectators at the airport in Blagnac, a suburb of Toulouse, cheered the take-off and landing nearly four hours later.

The German government congratulated Airbus, hailing the flight as the result ''of excellent cooperation in the European aviation industry and evidence of Europe's high technological capability.''

''It is sensational to experience this ... colossus lifting off the runway,'' said Ditmar Staffelt, the German government's aviation policy coordinator.

The European Union's industry commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, said the maiden flight was a European ''success story.''

''This 'Super-Airbus' proves that cooperation with the EU pays off,'' he said.

In Seattle, Boeing spokesman Jim Condelles called the flight ''an engineering accomplishment that Airbus should be very proud of.'' But he also reiterated the American rival's argument that the A380 is ''a very large airplane for a very small market.''

''We just don't see a market for 1,250 of these airplanes over the next 20 years, as Airbus projects. Boeing projects the market for what we call the very large airplane market at about 270 airplanes,'' he said. ''So there's a big difference there in the way we both look at this.''