Airbus Sees Bottom Of Industry Slump

Behind the wheeling and dealing, the air show was also overshadowed by the tragedy of Air France Flight 447. The French airline said Friday it would give about €17,500 ($24,000) as an advance to the families of the victims of the flight which never made it to its intended destination of Paris.

Remains of some of the 228 dead, and hundreds of pieces of wreckage reclaimed from the sea off Brazil are helping experts build a picture of what happened to the A330.

Leahy downplayed the significance of the sale of seven A330s, saying an A330 is taking off somewhere in the world every 60 seconds.

"We've had an incident and we have to get to the bottom of it but I think the world's airlines think this is a very flyable airline, a very safe airplane, a very good airplane."

France's Dassault SA also moved forward with talks over the sale of 60 Rafale fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates. In a statement, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's office said he "welcomed the progress" made on the possible sale, announced by UAE officials at the air show Friday.