| CL was a public works project more than a commercial business. It lived from subsidies. Only in its last weeks did somebody come up with the unique idea that they should make a commercially viable scaled down version rather than the prestigious super giant model. Germany is a country where for many making money is a dirty word. They have bureaucrats that go around to see who has cars parked on the street with for sale signs (an impermissible special use of the streets - unerlaubte Sondernutzung der Strassen), not because they sell cars with bad brakes, rather because they make money doing it and aren't paying a fee (as do participants in farmers' markets) to make the money. This more than the immediate problem of keeping your expensive balloon from shooting up into the stratosphere as soon as you let go of the 50 ton cargo is what led to the bancruptcy. |
