Aerospace Industry Analysis
Industry Overview
Aerospace and defense manufacturers develop aircraft and spacecraft for the commercial sector, and military aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, tanks, and other products for the United States and other militaries. Nearly half of the aerospace and defense industry's revenue comes from the latter half of the equation. Within the United States, there is only one major aircraft manufacturerBoeing. Its only domestic rival, McDonnell Douglass, was swallowed up by the maker of 747s in 1997. However, buying McDonnell Douglass didn't take out the competitionEurope's Airbus Industries has been steadily gaining market share in recent years and now ranks as the number-one aircraft manufacturer in the world.
Other companies manufacture aircraft partsGE manufactures engines and Raytheon makes radar systemsbut nearly half of all aerospace dollars come from the defense market (Hoover's). Lockheed Martin derives about 80 percent of its revenue from defense contracts with the U.S. government. Additionally, aerospace firms have large contracts with NASA. Lockheed and Boeing have agreements with NASA that equal 3 to 4 percent of their annual revenuethis includes the Space Shuttle, Satellite, Rocket, and other programs.
If you're looking at aerospace firms, you'll definitely need to consider the possibility of working on defense projects. Typically, aerospace projects have a high technical complexity factor and low outputthe processes aren't overly standardized and require a significant amount of engineering effort to produce products. For engineers, this means that juicy problem-solving activities abound not just in product development, but also in production. Moreover, NASA and the defense department have more far-sighted designs than the next quarter's profits, which means that their projects are often for cutting-edge technologies. The effect for people working in the industry is that you get to work on things that are decades ahead of what the general
Aerospace and defense manufacturers develop aircraft and spacecraft for the commercial sector, and military aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, tanks, and other products for the United States and other militaries. Nearly half of the aerospace and defense industry's revenue comes from the latter half of the equation. Within the United States, there is only one major aircraft manufacturerBoeing. Its only domestic rival, McDonnell Douglass, was swallowed up by the maker of 747s in 1997. However, buying McDonnell Douglass didn't take out the competitionEurope's Airbus Industries has been steadily gaining market share in recent years and now ranks as the number-one aircraft manufacturer in the world.
Other companies manufacture aircraft partsGE manufactures engines and Raytheon makes radar systemsbut nearly half of all aerospace dollars come from the defense market (Hoover's). Lockheed Martin derives about 80 percent of its revenue from defense contracts with the U.S. government. Additionally, aerospace firms have large contracts with NASA. Lockheed and Boeing have agreements with NASA that equal 3 to 4 percent of their annual revenuethis includes the Space Shuttle, Satellite, Rocket, and other programs.
If you're looking at aerospace firms, you'll definitely need to consider the possibility of working on defense projects. Typically, aerospace projects have a high technical complexity factor and low outputthe processes aren't overly standardized and require a significant amount of engineering effort to produce products. For engineers, this means that juicy problem-solving activities abound not just in product development, but also in production. Moreover, NASA and the defense department have more far-sighted designs than the next quarter's profits, which means that their projects are often for cutting-edge technologies. The effect for people working in the industry is that you get to work on things that are decades ahead of what the general