Aeronautical engineering

The aeronautical engineering is the economic sector which gathers the activities of design, manufacture and marketing of the Aéronef S (Avion S, Hélicoptère S, Drone S, Missile S, etc) and of the associated specific equipment (propulsion, systems of edge, etc).

Certain aeronautical companies are also present in the aerospace field, the construction of the rockets or missiles (not aerobes) and Space vehicles. See:

Specificity of the aeronautical engineering

The aeronautical engineering is an industry strongly dominated by the military field. It is also a sector where technology is dominating and thus a promoter of research. These two characteristics explain why the States play a central role in the industrial landscape even if the development of commercial air transport represents an increasingly high percentage of the activity.

During first half of the XXe century the aeronautical engineering was distributed in the whole of the world industrialized with a prevalence in the United States. Since the end of the Second world war, and even more after the collapse of the Soviet block, the aircraft industry is incontestably dominated by the United States, although Europe makes a success of some innovations: The Comet of the British De Havilland will be the first engine civil aircraft; the Caravel, of South-Aviation, inaugurates a new site for the engines; the France and the the United Kingdom launch jointly Concorde, first civil conveyer, wheel with Mach 2. Thereafter, Europe succeeds, via Airbus, to establish an effective competition in the field of civil transport; certain States maintain an industry military national either to preserve their independence with respect to the United States or because the latter refuses the access to their production to them. The primacy of the United States is explained by the size of the interior market (military and civil) involving the faster damping of the production costs to export and by the control of advanced technologies necessary to the development of the new apparatuses or of systems.

Although the aircraft are known under the name of the manufacturer of the cell, very roughly, this one accounts for only 25% of the cost of an apparatus; the propulsion intervenes for 25% and the greatest part, 50% even more out of one military plane multirôle, returns to on-board equipment.

Actors

Manufacturers

The regrouping of the industrialists of aeronautics

The importance of the investments and the length of the cycles necessary to develop a new apparatus precipitated the regrouping of the industrialists through repurchases and fusions. This movement is very visible for the manufacturers of cells and engines, a little less for the equipment suppliers.

In France there remains only two manufacturers of cells: Aerospace and Dassault, a manufacturer of engines: SNECMA and a major equipment supplier: Thalès. Aerospace, created in 1970 is resulting of more than one dozen of companies created before the Second world war (Arsenal, Amiot/Caudron, Farman /Hanriot, Potez, Bloch, Blériot, Dyle/Bacalan, the Loire Nieuport, Lioré and Olivier, Romano, Dewoitine, Mauboussin (Fouga), Morane-Saulnier) whose names evoke the pioneers of aviation and who were nationalized in 1936.

With the the United Kingdom a manufacturer: British Aerospace and a motor mechanic: Rolls-Royce followed an identical course; Bristish Aerospace, for example, is resulting from Avro, Blackbrun, De Havilland, Hawker, Armstrong, Vickers, Bristol, etc

In Germany, a manufacturer, DASA (Deutsche Aerospace AG) is resulting from the fusion of Messerschmitt, Bölkow and Dornier.

Europe, with EADS, gathers divisions " now; civiles" of these manufacturers.

In the United States an identical movement involved fusions within Boeing (Boeing, McDonnell, Douglas, North American), General Dynamics (Gulfstream), Northrop Grumman (Northrop, Grumman, Westinghouse, Teledyne-Ryan, TRW), Lockheed-Martin (Lockheed, Martin Marietta) for the cells, Rockwell Collins for the equipment, United Technologies and General Electric for the engines.

Simultaneously with these Reorganization S emergent in the industrialized countries (Southeast Asia, South America, in particular) of new manufacturers; the aeronautical industrial development of the countries resulting from the Soviet Block (Eastern Europe, Russia, etc) and from its satellite countries remains to be determined. For the moment, much of these manufacturers are dependant on American industry for their engines and equipment.

Notes and references of the article

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