ABSTRACT
The United States traditionally has been the largest market outside of the former Soviet Union for commercial transports, helicopters, and general aviation aircraft. The history of the aerospace industry has been a saga of continuing adjustment to changing national policy and economic conditions. The aerospace industry is composed of about 60 major firms operating some 1,000 facilities, backed by thousands of subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers. Despite growing percentages of nongovernment and nonaerospace business, industry activity is still dominated by government contracts with the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a factor that has important effects on the industry's economic status. Technology is simply knowledge, and it has a high degree of transferability: the knowhow acquired in exploring aerospace frontiers can be put to work to provide new products and services of a nonaerospace nature, with resultant benefits to the economy as a whole.
