THIS week should see a huge step being taken towards full production of Eurofighter 2000, the aeroplane on which thousands of jobs across East Lancashire depend.

Eurofighter will be showing the world exactly what it is capable of doing during this week's Farnborough air show.

And the government will use the performance to persuade its German, Italian and Spanish partners in the venture that they should now commit themselves to full production.

Anything else, at this stage, is unthinkable.

Thousands of jobs at BAe's Samlesbury and Warton factories are tied in to Eurofighter. More than £100 million is being invested in the Samlesbury site alone to prepare it for full production.

Sub-contactors and suppliers right across East Lancashire will also be involved in the building of Eurofighter.

East Lancashire is heavily involved in the high tech world of aircraft production these days.

It has come a long way from the mills and clogs image that the south still seems to associate with Lancashire.

And it has more to lose than any other area if there is an 11th hour hitch, similar to the one which saw the cancelling of the TSR2 project in the late 1960s.

That would be a nightmare scenario.

Everyone at BAe is confident that Eurofighter is a winner. And it is up to the government to convince its overseas partners that the point of no return has been well and truly reached.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.