The biggest civil aircraft project ever undertaken in Europe, the A3XX superjumbo, begins on Tuesday at a meeting of the supervisory board of Airbus, the European aircraftmaker.

It is understood the board of BAE Systems, the British aerospace and defence group, which holds a 20 per cent stake in Airbus, has already given the go-ahead for the $10.7 billion (€11.9 billion) project.

Many industry experts predicted that the world's biggest civil aircraft a direct rival to Boeing's 747 would never get off the ground.

But the double-decker jet-liner with seats for 555 passengers yesterday won further commercial backing when Virgin Atlantic placed an order for six, with an option on a further six.

The board of European Aeronautic Defence and Space company, which owns 80 per cent of Airbus, is expected to give its formal approval for the industrial launch of the A3XX at a meeting on Monday.

The superjumbo will decisively change the contours of the battle between Airbus and Boeing of the US for leadership of the world aircraft industry.

It will also break Boeing's 30year monopoly of the very large aircraft market with its 747 jumbo jet.

The A3XX project is expected to provide up to 96,000 jobs in the aerospace supplier chain, mainly in Europe and in the US, including 8,000 jobs in the UK. Financing for the superjumbo is expected to be one of the issues discussed when deputy US Trade Representative Ms Susan Esserman and senior EU trade official Mr Peter Carl meet in Washington on Monday, the source said.

Germany, Britain and France have promised to finance up to one-third of the cost of developing Airbus's proposed new superjumbo.

US Trade Representative Ms Charlene Barshefsky said this week that the funding plans could violate World Trade Organisation rules.