Aircraft and the third industrial revolution

Widely regarded as a fast-paced, high-technology sector, the commercial aircraft industry is driven toward the continuous development of safer and faster aircraft in order to satisfy the travel demands of a globalized economy. No longer the province of the wealthy, air travel is a core infrastructure for the modern economy. The aircraft industry quickly assumed a pivotal position in society and the economy from its inception at the start of the twentieth century. The early stage of industry development was turbulent, as artisan firms competed with each other to push the design and reliability of new airships. Some of the giants of present-day aviation have histories going back to the early expansion of the industry, with the founding of Boeing in 1916 and Douglas in 1920 (Winship, 1998). Since the First World War, the aeronautics industry has served both commercial and military markets. Although we must acknowledge the dual nature of the industry and its important effects on technological learning, this study focuses on the commercial aircraft industry. The rationale for splitting the analysis is based on the very different nature of these two markets. Whereas the United States and Europe demonstrate different military investments, the market trends for commercial aircraft are very similar across the two regions, reflecting a global dimension for the industry. For both the European Union and the United States, peaks are apparent in 1989 and 1997, with a drop in 1994 that is due to the recession in the early 1990s (Bryant, 1996). The aircraft industry in the United States was worth more than $82 billion in 2000, or 0.8% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and 1.9% of all manufacturing sales (AIA, 2001, pp. 15, 18). Of the $82 billion in aircraft sales in the United States, the commercial aircraft industry accounts for the largest share, $48.4 billion dollars in sales in the United States in 2000. In Europe, the commercial aircraft share is even higher, 72% in 2000 (AECMA, 2001), and growing.