Aerospace
A sector study of the EMCP
Meeting the grand challenges—and even grander opportunities—of the 21st century demands an innovation-driven economy powered by a secure, sustainable, affordable energy portfolio and a robust, agile, advanced manufacturing sector. One such advanced sector that will be a lynchpin for American competitiveness is the aerospace industry. The U.S. aerospace and defense sector is one of the nation’s top employers. With direct and indirect employment of 4.1 million workers in 2014, spread across the nation, the sector paid $115.6 billion in wages to those directly employed and employment in commercial aerospace continues to grow.
Maintaining a competitive aerospace infrastructure is essential for growth, productivity, jobs and national security. This advanced sector is an engine of manufacturing, with U.S. aerospace exports reaching $128.74 billion in 2013, up 8.6 percent from the previous year. U.S. aerospace exports have been experiencing a steady increase over the past several years, up almost 37 percent since 2009, indicating strong and stable future demand. Such long-term strength allows the industry to avoid the short-termism that often plagues research and development, while enabling the integration of new technologies and processes. The expanded timeline has considerable implications for energy productivity, costs and sustainability.
As the U.S. aerospace sector seeks more energy-efficient fleets and continues to rely on energy-intensive raw materials, manufacturers must out-innovate their global competitors. Importantly, the aerospace industry also represents a potential source of new jobs that will require new and higher skills. In many ways, the competitiveness of the American aerospace sector over the next decade will be defined by the ability to develop, standardize and deploy advanced materials, technologies and processes on a broad scale supported by a highly skilled workforce.
Despite the vast competitiveness opportunities and room for innovation, the U.S. is operating under a cash-starved, technologically limited FAA that uses limiting ground-based radar while other nations have begun to build quasi-government, cash-generating business entities to manage their commercial air control and infrastructure using satellite systems at the earth's lower orbit.
And while for decades space was exclusively the purview of governments and militaries, in recent years this previously restricted domain presents increasing commercial viability. In 2014, the United States, Russia, Europe, China, Japan, India, Israel, and multinational provider Sea Launch conducted a total of 92 orbital launches, 23 of which were conducted by the United States. Of these 23 U.S. launches, 11 were commercial orbital launches by companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, making 2014 the most active year since the late 1990s. The estimated commercial orbital launch revenues of $1.1 billion for U.S. providers were the highest since 1998, when the total was $1.12 billion. With this new and expanding potential for commercial development comes a new field of competition in defense and cybersecurity as we enter what can be considered a renewed space race.
Over the next decade, as airlines demand more energy-efficient fleets, as military capabilities demand more agile, long-range and fuel-efficient technologies and vehicles, and as the industry continues to rely on energy-intensive raw materials from steel to carbon composites, manufacturers must overcome challenges to the production of specialized and frequently energy-intensive design and manufacturing processes. As we look at the aerospace infrastructure and this entirely new frontier, it is increasingly important that the U.S. explore and capitalize on the abundant opportunities not only to keep pace with, but to accelerate and out-innovate our competitors.
Key questions addressed by this sector study included:
- How does the aerospace industry view the development of alternative energy and fuel sources? How are these innovative sources impacting the development of new products?
- How does the need for new and advanced materials, technologies and products complement--or compete with--energy efficiency and product development?
- Does the current regulatory structure enable the U.S. to innovate and compete with Russia, Europe and the rest of the world? If not, what types of policies are needed to spur innovation?
- What roles should government and the private sector play in terms of funding the research and development needed to accelerate American leadership in the aerospace sector vis-a-vis our global competitors?
- How can we ensure universities attract and retain the talent needed to excel in this evolving sector?
- Smart manufacturing and the greater use of sensors has been raised at previous discussions. How might this apply to the aerospace sector?
- How do cybersecurity, defense and other new-age issues impact knowledge-sharing and innovation in the aerospace sector?
