International collaboration on aerospace projects has been a way of life in Europe for many years. The paper will deal with some of the reasons for this association in development and manufacture and describe some of the relevant management organisations.
A brief review of the existing projects and their programmes will be made with particular emphasis on the MRCA programme. This represents the present phase of work using the variable wing sweep principle/ research on which started in the late 1940\u27s and included some Anglo- American co-operation via NASA. The variable sweep concept survived a series of national and international programme studies and political situations before reaching its present stage.
Europe is currently measuring its capability of remaining a first line source of aerospace equipment and some observations will be made with regard to the future in this respect
