HAMPSHIRE engineering workers are celebrating ahead of today's official unveiling of the world's biggest passenger jet - the double-decker Airbus A380.

The 555-seater A380 - which aims to supersede Boeing's dominant 747 - is being rolled out in Toulouse today.

Its launch will be watched by Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Europe has poured billions of taxpayers' euros into launching the A380 - state subsidies that have angered America. Until last week the US government was threatening to report the EU to the World Trade Organisation. EU leaders in turn claimed the US was subsidising Boeing.

Britain has built the wings of the Airbus A380, which is due to go into service in 2006. So far 129 have been pre-sold.

Work began in August 2002 on building the first set of wings at the £16.5 million Airbus factory at Filton near Bristol.

Work on the A380 wings has created jobs for around 22,000 people in Britain alone.

In Hampshire, Cobham's FR-HiTEMP subsidiary, which employs 550 people in Titchfield, developed sophisticated electronic low pressure fuel pumps for the wings' fuel tanks in a £32.2m deal announced in 2001.

Every A380 will carry £443,300 of equipment from Cobham, including pumps, valves, fluid level indicators, ducting, struts, transmission shafts and emergency oxygen systems.

On the avionics side, Cobham subsidiary Chelton is supplying the audio radio management system, digital clocks, computer servers, antennae and static dischargers.

Major Isle of Wight employer GKN, which has 750 Island based staff, is another company of the region involved in the pan-European project, as is Hamble's Smiths Aerospace, which employs more than 1,000.

The A380 is the world's biggest civil aviation project and has received £530m investment from the UK government alone, as well as an additional £250m for Rolls-Royce to develop the Trent 900 engines that will power the 580-ton machine.

The A380 is the only commercial plane designed to minimise the impact on the

environment. It can carry 35 per cent more passengers than a Boeing 747 and burns 13 per cent less fuel - less than 3 litres per passenger over 100km, which is comparable to a diesel-powered car.

Industry minister Jacqui Smith said: " The workers in the south-east firms that have put this together are rightly proud of their achievement.

"They are clear evidence that UK modern hi-tech manufacturing is still a world beater."