Most major aircraft manufacturing companies have been founded by flying enthusiasts who combined the properties of an innovator, engineer, and entrepreneur. This was the case with Boeing, Douglas, De Havilland, and Fokker. But not so with Airbus, which was started by pan-European political-economic interests to counteract the U.S. dominance of the airline industry. Today, the company with its main plant in Toulouse, France, competes with mighty Boeing for the world dominance.