Mobile leaders haven't announced any blockbuster deals after their trip to the Farnborough International Airshow, but say they see promising signs for the city's continued growth as an aerospace hub.

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and County Commission President Connie Hudson both area representatives had met with a number of supply companies about the possibility of doing business in Mobile. Both also said one highlight of the week was an appearance by Airbus CEO Tom Enders at the Mobile Bay Aerospace Reception.

Hudson said in a written statement that Enders "highly praised the collaborative partnership and strong working relationships between Airbus and the Alabama Team that were responsible for bringing Airbus to Mobile."

Stimpson echoed that at a press conference he held Friday to talk about developments at the air show. Among other things, he repeatedly said current leaders were continuing to develop relationships established by previous mayors and development advocates.

He also said that some people in the Mobile-Baldwin delegation had made a side trip to Broughton, Wales, to visit a massive plant where Airbus manufactures wings -- including those that are shipped to the Mobile Final Assembly Line for the A320-family jets that are built there.

Councilman Fred Richardson had hinted at that trip more than a week earlier, as he made his remarks at the end of the July 10 council meeting. "We're going to be focusing on suppliers," he said. "Specifically we're going to focus on the wings for the aircraft, for the Airbus aircraft." He said city representatives wanted to pitch the idea bringing a wing plant to the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley.

"Currently they have to build the wings, ship the wings here, ship them there, finally get the wings over here, when can build the wings here and be done with it," he said.

Even for an industry concerned about rising international protectionism and fallout from Brexit, that would be a major break with the status quo. But Stimpson and Richardson are not alone in their thinking: in January, a Bloomberg report carried the headline, "Brexit Exposes U.K. to Worldwide Raid on Airbus Wing Production."

According to that story, Airbus had been approached by "at least seven governments looking to poach future wing production." The Bloomberg report also said that " Airbus executives have hinted for months that the U.K.'s stranglehold on wing manufacturing, in place since the planemaker's inception in 1970, isn't guaranteed. Brexit further complicates things by threatening to add costs and complexity just as countries worldwide step up pressure on the company to win a greater share of production."

Stimpson was quick to say that there are no actual plans to build such a facility in Mobile, and as far as he knows Airbus isn't actively studying the idea.

"Airbus and their model of assembling airplanes in different locations, they are relying on the Broughton, England, location to produce all of their wings," Stimpson said. "And so that would tell you there's an opportunity there."

"If you just think about the logistics of shipping parts to England to put in the wing, and then shipping the wing back to Mobile, there's a lot of transportation cost involved," he said. "And so I would characterize that as a future opportunity, but not one that's really active at this point it time. It's more just planting a seed, and our comment would be that if they're interested in building wings somewhere else, if that comes about, then we're very interested in telling them we want to build them."

Stimpson said he estimated that a wing plant could bring 600 or more jobs.

A less hypothetical project is the new Final Assembly Line that Airbus plans to build in Mobile to assemble its A220 family of jets, the product of a joint venture with Canadian company Bombardier. Stimpson said that Airbus wants to break ground this fall and begin delivering jets by mid-2020, an aggressive timetable.

"A whole lot of work has got to be done at MAA [Mobile Airport Authority], at Brookley in order to do that," he said. He later added, "The biggest focus is on getting the FAL built, and getting the people lined up to do that."

"We have a lot of work cut out for us to prepare for that," he said. Aside from the construction of the FAL, local governments may need to fund infrastructure development and provide workforce development.

The city state and county also have to formulate an economic development package for the new FAL, he said. The development of the current FAL involved $158 million in tax breaks and other support.

This time around, Airbus unilaterally announced its intention to build another assembly line before negotiating terms. Stimpson indicated that even though Airbus had committed, an incentive package was being developed after the fact.

"They would love to have the support of the city, the county and the state, and there will be something that we do have to do to facilitate that," he said. "And that all will be forthcoming once Airbus is finally finished working out the details with the state."