Having taken Tim's advice to heart and read up on the dastardly no-talent French, here's a potted history of aerospace in Europe....
Military aircraft
The Mirage delta was obviously a copy of the FD.2, I'm sure. Quick work guys! It flew only eight months later. Actually, for those who have eyes to see, a Mirage looks more like an F-102/F-106 on SlimFast than it looks like an FD.2. (Wing location... landing gear... ) Meanwhile, the UK produces the world-beating Frightening and the Frogs do the Mirage III.
Next generation comes around. The UK gets a fixation on low-level jets with tiny engines. Cool idea for strike but do they do anything else all that well? The Frogs do the Mirage 2000. Just went out of production last year.
Commercial aircraft
After 15 years of getting slapped around by Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed, the UK devises a superb strategy for commercial aviation - bet the farm on carbonfibre fans for the TriStar. Way to go there, Sparky. Of course they do the magnificent 146 and ATP as well.
Amid much bitching from across La Manche, the French take control of Airbus (with much more help from British people than their companies - the boss of HSA stomped out of the Airbus cafeteria because he realised he was eating in the presence of workers) and achieve parity with Boeing, thanks in large part to fly-by-wire tech pioneered on the Mirage 2000.
Business jets
After years of Basil Fawlty-like moaning ("Bloody customers, can't they tell that the Viper's good enough?) a fan engine finally appears on the 125. Too little, too late, and now it's a Raytheon product.
The inept, unoriginal Frogs build a full line of business jets and sell them successfully into the US market.
And then there's Eurocopter, space and of course that world-beating British cruise missile, Storm Shadow...
Conclusion: Europe's industry would be in far better shape without the French as any fule kno.