Technological change in the military aircraft industry
Authors:
H.O. Stekler
Affiliation:
National Defense University, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Washington, D.C., USA
Abstract:
This paper analyzes technological change in the U.S. military aircraft industry. It divides this technological change into two components, methods of production and product quality innovations. The basic findings of this paper are obtained from a comparison of the F-4 and F-15 technologies. The results show that new production technologies reduce the costs of manufacturing a weapon system, but that product improvements substantially increase costs.