ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad overview of the general relationship between the aircraft industry and national economic development. It briefly highlights the general theoretical setting in which national aircraft industries are nurtured. The chapter examines a number of national examples deemed representative of the forms in which the industry may occur. It focuses on the already established aircraft industries of the world, especially those of the USA and EEC. The international economic system may be conceptualised as a hierarchical structure based on the division of labour, and is made manifest in the form of uneven accumulation among nation-states. In general, and along with fiscal and monetary policies, industrial policies constitute one element of a nation's basic economic policy framework. A prominent industrial strategy adopted by many developing and developed nations is import substitution. Basically, this strategy calls for the domestic production of goods that were previously imported.
