One more thing Vage Rot,
Boeing 707 Concived 1951, Dash 80 first flight 1954, in airline service 1958.
Airbus 340/330 concived 1986, first flew 1992, certified 9 months later, in airline service 2 months after that.
8 years just to get the airframe off the ground would not be tollerated if the government wasn't picking up the bill. You can't blame it on the complexity of the kit either as the whole problem has been with the aircraft. By the way have they sorted out the autopilot yet. Don't much fancy flying an aircraft at 200ft with an autopilot that is porpoising +/- 500ft at the moment.