Taxpayers are expected to forfeit a big chunk of the £730m launch aid that Britain pumped into the A380 superjumbo.

Airbus scrapped the double-decker plane last week after its biggest customer, the Dubai airline Emirates, slashed its order. Production of the 544-seat jet will end in 2021.

Britain, Germany, France and Spain poured huge sums of “repayable launch investment” (RLI) into the superjumbo programme at the turn of the century in a bold challenge to arch-rival Boeing. But changing travel patterns and weak demand led to disappointing sales.

Britain handed £530m of launch aid to Airbus and a further £200m to Rolls-Royce to develop Trent 900 engines for the plane. Taxpayers took a risk on the investment, with sums repaid on every aircraft sale alongside