Even the giants of the industry find that it is not easy to get an entirely new aircraft design off the ground. The research-and-development costs for Boeing’s newest aircraft project, the 787 Dreamliner, grew to $28 billion as a result of problems with its supply chain and its electronics. And revenues from Airbus’s newest aircraft, the giant A380, hardly cover its production costs, never mind the capital sunk into its development. If even the industry’s two dominant firms find it a long, expensive struggle to get a new aircraft design in the sky, no wonder their would-be rivals are having such a hard time.