The Dawn of the Trillion-Dollar Space Economy
September 22, 2022
The birth of the aerospace industry dates back to 1903, when the Wright Brothers achieved the first powered and controlled airplane flight. Today, America’s aerospace sector is the largest on the planet, supplying products and services to civilian and military customers throughout the world. It directly employs over 500,000 workers, and in 2018 alone added $151 billion of export sales to the U.S. economy, according to the Aerospace Industries Association.
Generally speaking, aerospace serves five key markets: military aircraft, commercial airliners, general aviation, missiles — and space. While innovation and new ideas are continually pushing the entire industry’s growth, these days it’s clearly the young space sector transforming aerospace into an even more dynamic, diverse, and economically powerful industry.