It was Alabama by miles.

South Carolina offered Airbus a North Charleston site within six miles of one of the nation’s biggest ports, but Alabama had something the company wanted more — a Mobile site a half mile from deep water and a congressional delegation that will work to get Airbus an Air Force contract to build refueling tankers.

Airbus passed over North Charleston and two other Southeastern sites Wednesday to set up shop in Alabama. The company’s parent, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), will build a 150-employee engineering center expected to open in early 2006.

EADS hopes that will grow into a 1,150-employee, $500 million plant to make the Air Force’s next generation of tanker jets for mid-air refuelings, starting in 2008. But first, the Airbus needs a U.S. Defense Department contract, something rival Boeing also wants.

Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., chief executive for EADS’ North American subsidiary, said the Mobile site is near a deep-water berth, allowing large assemblies, some more than 20 feet tall, to move less than 2,000 feet from a ship into the plant for assembly.

“It is really the key determinant here,” Crosby continued. “Each of the other states provided robust solutions. No one could come near to the risk minimization and cost effectiveness associated with that geometry.”

The other two competing sites were near Gulfport, Miss., and Melbourne, Fla.

EADS tried to ease the pain for the three losing states by providing each a five-year, $100,000 grant for selected graduate and undergraduate students from the state to work at the new Airbus facility.

South Carolina had offered 150 acres at the Charleston International Airport. Airbus would have been next to Vought Aircraft of Dallas and Alenia Aeronautica of Rome, which are spending $560 million to build a 630-employee plant to make the rear fuselage for Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner, a mid-size passenger jet competing with the Airbus 380 jumbo jet.

Gov. Mark Sanford said that the interest the North Charleston site has drawn from Boeing, Vought, Alenia and Airbus shows the state can compete in the industrial big league of aircraft manufacturing.

“When you’re starting with 70-some potential sites, it’s a lot like the NCAA Tournament, and the law of averages says if you keep making the Final Four you’re going to bring home your share of championships. We’re doing that today in a way we weren’t before,” Sanford said.

South Carolina’s state and local incentives offered to Airbus were probably less than $200 million, said Roland Windham, administrator for Charleston County.

“Alabama has a history of offering more incentives than South Carolina,” Windham said. “You have to draw a line. We figured we could not do more.”

Alabama’s deal is still being negotiated, but probably will be less than $253 million, the amount Alabama offered Mercedes in 1994 to build a car plant between Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, said Neil Wade, director of the Alabama Development Office.

Alabama will release details of its incentives after the deal is signed. Wade said he expects that to occur within a few months and before Airbus begins work on the engineering center.

Alabama has about $140 million in its special fund to attract large employers, and it has other pools of money to support training and other needs, Wade said.

“Obviously, that’s going to be a big price tag,” Wade said. “We want a project that is good for the state and good for the company.”

Wade said Airbus officials were looking for a strong congressional delegation to work with them to get the contract. Alabama has 26 years of combined seniority in the U.S. Senate alone.

“We have a very strong congressional delegation,” he said. “We think we have the political partnership EADS needed to make EADS competitive and go forward. If they don’t get the contract, you won’t get the full investment.”

Alabama also is spending $80 million to beef up Mobile’s port.

Airbus received proposals from more than 70 sites after announcing its site search in January. It narrowed its choices to four in May.

Sanford and S.C. Commerce Secretary Bob Faith spent last week meeting executives from Airbus and other companies at the Paris Air Show.

About 60 people attended a dinner June 13 during the Paris Air Show sponsored by the S.C. Commerce Department and two multi-county economic development groups — the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and the Upstate Alliance.

A day earlier, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley hosted a dinner atop the Eiffel tower for 35 people, including executives of Airbus and other companies.

South Carolina Democrats criticized the efforts of Sanford, a Republican.

“You can’t say, ‘We lost it, but we did a super job.’ That just doesn’t cut it,” said S.C. Senate Minority Leader John Land, D-Clarendon.

Land said Sanford didn’t do enough to involve the state’s leaders in business and the General Assembly in recruiting Airbus. Instead, the senator said, the governor has spent his time making symbolic gestures, such as carrying two piglets under his arms into the State House in May 2004 to protest the General Assembly’s spending. Land said the scent of the antic followed him to Paris.

“I don’t think you can go over there and say you’re the governor who took pigs into the State House and get much respect,” Land said.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com.