in the two years following this agreement, both the british and french governments expressed doubts about the project. the memorandum of understanding had stated that 75 orders must be achieved by 31 july 1968. the french government threatened to withdraw from the project due to its concern over funding all of the airbus a300, concorde and the dassault mercure concurrently, but was persuaded to maintain its support. with its own concerns at the a300b proposal in december 1968, and fearing it would not recoup its investment due to lack of sales, the british government withdrew on 10 april 1969. west germany took this opportunity to increase its share of the project to 50%. given the participation by hawker siddeley up to that point, france and west germany were reluctant to take over its wing design. thus the british company was allowed to continue as a privileged subcontractor. hawker siddeley invested gb£35 million in tooling and, requiring more capital, received a gb£35 million loan from the west german government.