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The aerospace industry comprises companies producing aircraft, guided missiles, space vehicles, aircraft engines, propulsion units, and related parts. Aircraft overhaul, rebuilding, and parts also are included.
In 2002, about 2,800 establishments made up the aerospace industry in the United States. In the aerospace parts industry, most establishments were subcontractors that manufacture parts and employ fewer than 100 workers. Nevertheless, 64 percent of the jobs in aerospace manufacturing were in large establishments that employed 1,000 or more workers.
The US Federal Government traditionally has been the aerospace industry’s biggest customer. The vast majority of Government contracts to purchase aerospace equipment are awarded by DOD. NASA also is a major purchaser of the industry’s products and services, mainly for space vehicles and launch services.
The aerospace industry is dominated by a few large firms that contract to produce aircraft with government and private businesses, usually airline and cargo transportation companies. These large firms, in turn, subcontract with smaller firms to produce specific systems and parts for their vehicles.
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The way in which commercial and military aircraft are designed, developed, and produced is undergoing significant change in response to the need to cut costs and deliver products more quickly. Firms producing commercial aircraft have reduced development time drastically through computer-aided design (CAD), which allows firms to design an entire aircraft, including the individual parts, solely by computer. The drawings of these parts can be sent electronically to subcontractors who use them to program their machinery.
Product development teams are increasingly being used through every phase of development, bringing customers, engineers, and production workers together to make decisions concerning the aircraft. Additionally, the military has changed its design philosophy, using available commercially available, off-the-shelf technology when appropriate, rather than developing new customized components.
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1. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
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