Aerospace Industry

Defense Aerospace Industry

The United States government has a complex defense sector put in place to protect its citizens. Last year alone the US budget dedicated $450 billion to defense for the Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force and all of their subcategories. The services and goods bought for the military is broken down into several smaller products groups, one is the aerospace industry. This industry is defined as “the human effort in science, engineering and business to fly in the atmosphere of Earth (aeronautics) and surrounding space (astronautics). Aerospace organizations research, design, manufacture, operate, or maintain aircraft and/or spacecraft” (The Aerospace corporation.) For the sake of data I focused my efforts on the Department of Navy and the contractors it works.

History of Flight

Way before the United States became the super power that it is today flight was just an idea. That is until George Cayley, the father of aviation, began making small scale models. His first model featured a heavier-than-air flight that mimicked the flapping wings of a bird. He was the first to apply the idea of lift to a flight model which led to George deciding he needed to generate a power for lifting an aircraft. In 1799, at the age of only 26, he built the first fixed wing disk that featured the first fuselage and tail unit. He continued on with research and five years later in 1804 Cayley put his lift idea to life and bent the wings of his disk. Four years after this he constructed a winged glider and continued on later in his life in 1849 with his first full sized glider but he knew flight would not occur until a lightweight engine was developed. Many say his journals from 1809 and 1810 set the basis for the Wright Brothers to get off the ground in 1903.

(Photo from the Century of Flight INC).

Before the Wright brothers took flight another set of brothers in Germany were at work, The Lilienthal’s. They used wing like gliders attached to themselves to...