If Boeing gets parts of the work done overseas can Airbus be far behind? Well no, The St. Petersburg Times reports from Frankfurt that Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert plans to keep 30% of the "core competence" in-house while 70% of the work will be done by providers in Russia,China and India. In fact, outsourcing work has fueled the growth of Boeing with 10B$ orders from Japan where 7B of developmental work was actually financed by the Japanese Government. The Airbus Super Jumbo A380 is booked out till 2010. What is core and what is not core in this industry is strictly according to the "eyes of the beholder." The beholder in this case is the market. If the market thinks that Boeing or Airbus has a particular strength then these companies are likely to do that job in-house. Interestingly, all jobs in this industry are high tech,high skill and need high engineering smarts whether they are done in Europe,USA,China,Russia or India. Food for thought for Engineering Profs across the globe. What should you be teaching the college kids in Engineering School?