Executives with European planemaker Airbus say it's true... there were some serious problems with the aft fuselage of the superjumbo A380... airframe issues that required reinforcement.

The German magazine Der Speigel has obtained internal Airbus documents that show, as far back as March, concerns about structural weakness near the tail of the massive aircraft. The resulting fixes drove the whalejet's weight up... forcing Airbus to spend money to compensate... and forcing the company to delay the commercial rollout of the A380 for at least six months.

That, in turn, caused a huge sell-off of parent company EADS stock... driving the company's value down by about 25-percent.

Still... after a major management shake-up... it seems as if customers are making their way back into the Airbus fold.

At last week's Farnborough Air Show near London... Airbus beat Boeing better than 2-to-1 on new orders for commercial aircraft.

Boeing is still expected to retake the lead in sales by the end of the year... but even Boeing's CEO says Airbus will emerge from this rough patch a stronger, more capable company.

FMI: www.airbus.com