Aerospace manufacturer
Encyclopedia
An aerospace
manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft
, aircraft part
s, missile
s, rocket
s, and/or spacecraft
.
In the European Union
, aerospace companies such as EADS
, BAE Systems
, Thales
, Dassault
, Saab
and Finmeccanica
account for a large share of the global aerospace industry and research effort, with the European Space Agency
as one of the largest consumers of aerospace technology and products.
In Russia
, large aerospace companies like Oboronprom
and the United Aircraft Building Corporation (encompassing Mikoyan
, Sukhoi
, Ilyushin
, Tupolev
, Yakovlev
, and Irkut
which includes Beriev) are among the major global players in this industry.
In the United States
, the Department of Defense
and NASA
are the two biggest consumers of aerospace technology and products. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States reported that the aerospace industry employed 444,000 wage and salary jobs in 2004, many of which were in Washington and California. This is down from the peak years during the Reagan Administration
when total employment exceeded 1,000,000 aerospace industry workers. During that period of recovery a special program to restore US competitiveness across all US industries, Project Socrates
, contributed to employment growth as the U.S. aerospace industry captured 72 percent of the global aerospace market. By 1999 US share of the global market fell to 52 percent. Leading companies like Boeing
, United Technologies Corporation
and Lockheed Martin Corp. are among the most widely known aerospace manufacturers in the world.
Important locations of the civil aerospace industry worldwide include Seattle, Dayton, Ohio
and St. Louis in the USA (Boeing
), Montreal
in Canada (Bombardier
), Toulouse
in France and Hamburg
in Germany (both Airbus
/EADS
), the North-West of England and Bristol
in the UK (BAE Systems
, Airbus
and AgustaWestland
), as well as São José dos Campos
in Brazil where Embraer
is based.
In the aerospaces & defense industry, a lot of consolidation has appeared over the last couple of decades. Between 1988 and 2010, worldwide more than 5'452 mergers & acquisitions
with a total known value of 579 bil. USD have been announced. The largest transactions have been: the merger of Boeing
with McDonnell
valued at 13.4 bil. USD in 1996, Marconi Electronic Systems
, a subsidiary of General Electric
, was acquired by British Aerospace
for 12.9 bil. USD in 1999 (now called: BAE Systems
), and Raytheon
acquired Hughes Aircraft
for 9.5 bil. USD in 1997.
, were:
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
, aircraft part
Aircraft part
An aircraft part is an article or component approved for installation on a certificated aircraft. Approval for these parts is derived from the jurisdictions of the countries that an aircraft is based...
s, missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s, rocket
Rocket
A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...
s, and/or spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
.
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, aerospace companies such as EADS
EADS
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...
, BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
, Thales
Thales Group
The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...
, Dassault
Dassault Group
Dassault Group, is a French group of companies led by Serge Dassault.Managing directors are Claude Dassault and Olivier Costa De Beauregard.- Subsidiaries :*Dassault Aviation;...
, Saab
Saab
Saab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...
and Finmeccanica
Finmeccanica
Finmeccanica S.p.A. is an Italian conglomerate. Finmeccanica is the second largest industrial group and the largest of the hi-tech industrial groups based in Italy. It works in the fields of defence, aerospace, security, automation, transport and energy...
account for a large share of the global aerospace industry and research effort, with the European Space Agency
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
as one of the largest consumers of aerospace technology and products.
In Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, large aerospace companies like Oboronprom
Oboronprom
OPK Oboronprom is a Russian aerospace holding company. The company is involved in helicopter production, engine production, air-defenсe systems, complex radio-electronic systems and leasing...
and the United Aircraft Building Corporation (encompassing Mikoyan
Mikoyan
Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG , or RSK MiG, is a Russian joint stock company. Formerly Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau , then simply Mikoyan, it is a military aircraft design bureau, primarily designing fighter aircraft...
, Sukhoi
Sukhoi
Sukhoi Company is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in Begovoy District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow, famous for its fighters...
, Ilyushin
Ilyushin
Open Joint Stock Company «Ilyushin Aviation Complex» , operating as Ilyushin or Ilyushin Design Bureau, is a Russian design bureau and aircraft manufacturer, founded by Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin. Ilyushin was established under the Soviet Union. Its operations began on January 13, 1933, by...
, Tupolev
Tupolev
Tupolev is a Russian aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Basmanny District, Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow. Known officially as Public Stock Company Tupolev, it is the successor of the Tupolev OKB or Tupolev Design Bureau headed by the Soviet aerospace engineer A.N. Tupolev...
, Yakovlev
Yakovlev
The Yak Aircraft Corporation is a Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer...
, and Irkut
Irkut (company)
Irkut Corporation is a Russian aircraft manufacturer, member of the United Aircraft Corporation. It is best known as being the manufacturer of the Sukhoi Su-30 family of interceptor/ground-attack aircraft....
which includes Beriev) are among the major global players in this industry.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
are the two biggest consumers of aerospace technology and products. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States reported that the aerospace industry employed 444,000 wage and salary jobs in 2004, many of which were in Washington and California. This is down from the peak years during the Reagan Administration
Reagan Administration
The United States presidency of Ronald Reagan, also known as the Reagan administration, was a Republican administration headed by Ronald Reagan from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989....
when total employment exceeded 1,000,000 aerospace industry workers. During that period of recovery a special program to restore US competitiveness across all US industries, Project Socrates
Project Socrates
Project Socrates was a US Defense Intelligence Agency program established in 1983 within the Reagan administration. This classified program, founded and directed by physicist Michael Sekora, was designed for the purpose of identifying the root cause of the United States' declining ability to...
, contributed to employment growth as the U.S. aerospace industry captured 72 percent of the global aerospace market. By 1999 US share of the global market fell to 52 percent. Leading companies like Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...
and Lockheed Martin Corp. are among the most widely known aerospace manufacturers in the world.
Important locations of the civil aerospace industry worldwide include Seattle, Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
and St. Louis in the USA (Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
), Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in Canada (Bombardier
Bombardier Aerospace
Bombardier Aerospace is a division of Bombardier Inc. and is the third-largest airplane manufacturer in the world. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.- History :...
), Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in France and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in Germany (both Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
/EADS
EADS
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...
), the North-West of England and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in the UK (BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
, Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
and AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland
AgustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company. It was formed in July 2000 when Finmeccanica S.p.A. and GKN plc agreed to merge their respective helicopter subsidiaries to form AgustaWestland with Finmeccanica and GKN each holding a 50% share.AgustaWestland is now a...
), as well as São José dos Campos
São José dos Campos
São José dos Campos is a municipality and a major city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil and one of the most important industrial and research centers in Latin America. It is located in the Paraíba Valley, between the two most active production and consumption regions in the country, São Paulo ...
in Brazil where Embraer
Embraer
Embraer S.A. is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and executive aircraft and provides aeronautical services....
is based.
In the aerospaces & defense industry, a lot of consolidation has appeared over the last couple of decades. Between 1988 and 2010, worldwide more than 5'452 mergers & acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
with a total known value of 579 bil. USD have been announced. The largest transactions have been: the merger of Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
with McDonnell
McDonnell Aircraft
The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer based in St. Louis, Missouri. The company was founded on July 16, 1939 by James Smith McDonnell, and was best known for its military fighters, including the F-4 Phantom II, and manned spacecraft including the Mercury capsule...
valued at 13.4 bil. USD in 1996, Marconi Electronic Systems
Marconi Electronic Systems
Marconi Electronic Systems , or GEC-Marconi as it was until 1998, was the defence arm of The General Electric Company . It was demerged from GEC and acquired by British Aerospace on November 30, 1999 to form BAE Systems...
, a subsidiary of General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, was acquired by British Aerospace
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was in the Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire...
for 12.9 bil. USD in 1999 (now called: BAE Systems
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
), and Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
acquired Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
for 9.5 bil. USD in 1997.
Top-performing aerospace companies
As of June 2005, the top-performing aerospace companies, as ranked by Aviation Week & Space TechnologyAviation Week & Space Technology
Aviation Week & Space Technology, often abbreviated Aviation Week or AW&ST, is a weekly magazine owned and published by McGraw-Hill...
, were:
United States
- United Technologies CorporationUnited Technologies CorporationUnited Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...
- General Dynamics Corp.
- L-3 CommunicationsL-3 CommunicationsL-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. is a company that supplies command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training devices and services, instrumentation, space, and navigation products. Its customers include...
- Honeywell International Inc.
- Parker HannifinParker HannifinParker Hannifin Corporation , originally Parker Appliance Company, usually referred to as just Parker, of Mayfield Heights, Ohio , is the global leader in motion and control technologies. The company was founded in 1918, and has been publicly traded on the NYSE since December 9, 1964...
- Computer Sciences Corp.
- Thales GroupThales GroupThe Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...
(U.S. branch) - Lockheed Martin Corp.
- Northrop Grumman Corp.
- BoeingBoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
- Aquarius Defence Industries
- Woodlawn ManufacturingWoodlawn ManufacturingWoodlawn Manufacturing is a precision manufacturer of metal parts and assemblies for the defense, oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, HVAC and other industries...
See also
- AerospaceAerospaceAerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
- List of aircraft manufacturers
- List of aircraft accidents
- List of spacecraft manufacturers