In Europe, analysis plays a radically different role in aerospace development. A French project team for example, will provide its customer with a dossier calcul, but only after its design is completed and often not until the design has flown.
The emphasis on analysis naturally has a major effect on staffing in the U.S. aerospace industry. A recent manpower survey by AIA of a typical U.S. airframe manufacturer showed that some 2000 of the company’s 8000 technical professionals were engaged in analysis and only 2800 in design work in the European sense of the word.
That was Albert Shapero in 1969 testifying to the Subcommittee on Economy in Government, “The Military Budget and National Economic Priorities.” I wonder how many of those technical people doing analysis were supporting contract proposal development. It appeared that Northrop was the one US airframing firm that emphasized austere prototyping up through up until the 1970s. But the reality for US defense firms is that their structures have to reflect the process requirements of its only customer, the government. And that necessitates the paper analyses that factor so heavily in shaping and then winning contracts.
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